Angels, Heaven, and Earth
by Ken Arromdee
Summary: Crossover between Tenchi Muyou and Evangelion. In the future, the son of Tenchi and Ryouko is invited to a very special school in Tokyo-3....
1. Prologue; Chapter 1: Friendly Angel, Com...

Author's note: I originally posted this to the Fanfic mailing list and to the  
Usenet group rec.arts.anime.creative. This version changes a bit of the  
wording and corrects some mistakes (like, I had Kaji seeing Lilith for the  
first time in this story, which isn't right.)  
  
If you think Akuma is a self-insert, you'll be glad to know that I use him a  
lot less later on. Basically I needed someone "normal" from the Tenchi side  
to go up against all the messed-up people in Evangelion.  
  
Timeline notes: This uses the Tenchi OAV series and Daughter of Darkness.  
The timeline works out quite well: they happened when they were published,  
around 1994 for the OAVs and 1997 for the movie. Likewise, Evangelion happens  
exactly as in the original, up to Touji being put in an Eva. Tenchi and  
Ryouko married in 2000 and their son was born in 2001.  
  
  
  
Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Prologue  
  
A long time ago, Masaki Tenchi's life had been like every other Japanese  
teenager's. But one day, it all changed. He didn't expect much to happen when  
he snuck into the cave his grandfather warned him about, but he had ended up  
freeing Ryouko, attracting many semi-permanent houseguests, and finally killing  
the villainous Kagato and learning his own true Juraian heritage.  
  
That was over twenty years ago. Now, Tenchi and Ryouko were married; their  
own son, Akuma, age 14, was leaving home for the first time. It was a big,  
though far more mundane, change for him, and although he could come home  
whenever he wished, he would have friends and classmates in the new area and  
his life would not remain as centered on the family as it had once been.  
  
"Second thoughts?" asked Ryouko, hugging her husband while floating in the  
air.  
  
"Yeah", said Tenchi. "I felt the same way when Mayuka went off to college."  
  
Ryouko's little mannerisms like that floating trick, thought Tenchi, had  
hardly changed in the past twenty-one years. It was like when they both were  
still young. But then, they were still young. Tenchi and his wife could  
live, literally, forever. So could his grandfather. So could Washuu. So  
could Sasami. And now that Aeka had gotten his father a tree--he was a  
distant descendent of Yosho, after all--Tenchi knew that what his grandfather  
told him, that living forever can be lonely, doesn't have to be true.  
  
The world itself had changed much more than they had. Fifteen years ago  
there was an explosion at the South Pole. The Second Impact. Only Washuu's  
intervention (in secret) had whittled the catastrophe down to size. Something  
like that would throw up enough dust into the atmosphere to cause the equivalent  
of a fifty year nuclear winter. Scientists never did figure out why the dust  
had settled so fast, but Tenchi knew that, though half the population of the  
world had died in the floods, famines, and wars, it could have been much, much,  
worse.  
  
"It's okay", said Ryouko. "We can easily visit, or Akuma-chan can come  
here. It's only a few teleport jumps for either of us. He's not going to be  
gone forever, Tenchi. Nobody leaves here forever, especially family. Hey,  
maybe he'll find a girlfriend in Tokyo-2." She tried to smile and not show her  
discomfort at the idea of their son being away. "Just in case he does, I  
should have warned him not to destroy the school to chase someone he likes.  
That never works", she joked.  
  
"Well, it did once", replied Tenchi, smiling at Ryouko. He returned the  
hug, knowing that nothing could really happen to Akuma--he not only had  
Ryouko's powers, but he had managed to produce Light Hawk Wings sooner than  
either of them had--but he worried about him nevertheless. Parents always  
worry.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"The seventeenth Angel is arriving?" said one male voice, hidden behind  
a pictureless screen bearing only the word "SEELE" and the number "06".  
  
His fellow voice, also faceless, replied in his German accent. "The one we  
have found. It was a lucky find, as the crowd scan project is in its infancy.  
The readings confirm an AT Field potential several times that of any Angel  
encountered so far. His name means 'devil'. His supposed mother's records  
are completely fake. There's never been such an obvious candidate before."  
  
"The Secret Dead Sea Scrolls list the Angel of Free Will last. It is  
possible he might not act until his number comes up."  
  
"He should not act until his number comes up. When the Seventeenth Angel  
and Lilith annihilate each other, the Human Complementation Project can  
happen."  
  
"What if the 'last Angel' means the one listed last, no matter in what  
order they appear?"  
  
"We shall test him. We shall delay the test of Unit 04 until it is already  
in the Geofront. If the last Angel acts, the project can go into effect  
immediately."  
  
"And if the Fourth Child acts later, or does not act at all?"  
  
"Then there is little change from the situation had NERV been allowed to  
select Touji. There are many methods of which this is but one to reach our  
goal."  
  
* * * * *  
  
After several trains and some walking, Akuma found the address he was  
supposed to report to. It didn't look like a school at all; it was just a  
nondescript office. There was a secretary in the waiting room, but nobody  
else. "Excuse me, miss, where do I go now?" asked Akuma. "I'm supposed to be  
a student at the Marduk Institute and I'm wondering where to go."  
  
The secretary smiled politely at Akuma and turned a knob, letting a tinny  
voice speak through a grate on the wall. Strange, Akuma thought. Why not just  
come out and appear? Maybe security. It was a top-secret project, after all.  
  
"Just a moment", said the voice. "We would prefer you give a blood sample  
and submit to a brain scan first."  
  
Odd way of phrasing it, thought Akuma. They wanted him to do it, but the  
way they said it, they might not be expecting cooperation. Best to see if it  
really was voluntary; it wouldn't do to submit a sample laced with Juraian DNA  
and Masu. "I would prefer not."  
  
"Very well", said the voice. "Do you know about our special programs?"  
  
He must mean the robot piloting, thought Akuma. Akuma could hardly believe  
his luck. His grandmother Washuu suggested that they might be recruiting robot  
pilots from the students. It was never in the newspapers, but she had ways of  
knowing; she showed him a fuzzy photograph of a giant robot battle, something  
she found when hacking satellite computers. Maybe they were supposed to have  
told him by now? That had to be it; it would be impossible to hide the fights  
from the students living in the area, anyway.  
  
On the other hand, his hopes might be just a little high. He didn't _know_  
that it would be anything like that. Crossing his fingers, Akuma asked the  
question. "You want me to be a pilot, right?"  
  
"That is correct", grated the speaker. "You are now the Fourth Child.  
You will be piloting Eva-03. Our secretary will give you the necessary  
instructions and passes, as well as information about the other Angels. Take  
them and go now."  
  
Akuma could barely hide his excitement. It was true, then, he would be  
a pilot. He imagined himself walking through the city, smashing rocks and  
trees with huge fists, and blasting alien invaders to oblivion. Akuma had tried  
it once, after watching five episodes of Gundam in a row, animating a cliff  
face in lieu of a mobile suit. Ryo-ohki had turned into a spaceship and played  
with him. He had taken out several oaks and a carrot patch before his mother  
came by and took him home for dinner--without any dessert.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The ocean, thought Shinji, looked like a battlefield. A broken statue,  
half flooded by the Second Impact fifteen years before, was the body of a  
soldier. A man, huge as an Eva, somehow fought an unknown enemy on orders  
from a distant commander who barely knew he existed, and now he lay in the sea  
as a piece of trash, dead and forgotten. The setting sun bloodied the water,  
a sea of red carnage in which the bare bones of old skyscrapers were exposed.  
And the stench... Shinji imagined that he could still smell around himself the  
LCL that he was too familiar with. A smell indistinguishable from blood.  
  
A boy walked by along the shore, blocking Shinji's reverie. A boy about  
his own age, with a rounded face, short black hair, and a narrow ponytail.  
Shinji didn't recognize him; but shouldn't they be keeping all outsiders away  
from this area? Oh well. It wasn't Shinji's business. Shinji kept staring  
at the seashore and let the boy pass by.  
  
Instead of walking past Shinji and leaving him alone, the boy stopped.  
He raised a hand and greeted Shinji with a "Hello."  
  
Shinji waved. "Hello."  
  
"It's a nice sunset, isn't it?"  
  
"Uh, sure", replied Shinji. "I'm just feeling bad about some other things,  
that's all."  
  
"You must be lonely out here", said the newcomer.  
  
"I just... I went out for a walk."  
  
"I was expecting more of a dormitory kind of thing", said the newcomer.  
"There's nobody our own age here. They put me in a room all by myself and they  
didn't explain anything."  
  
"Who are you, anyway?"  
  
"Oh. I'm Masaki Akuma. I'm the Fourth Child."  
  
"I'm Ikari Shinji. I'm the Third Child. I was wondering who the Fourth  
Child was going to be. I was expecting Kensuke, or Toji."  
  
"Nope. It's me." Akuma bowed. "It's nice to meet you, Ikari Shinji. I  
hope we can be friends, okay? It looks like we might be seeing a lot of each  
other."  
  
"Yeah", said Shinji, politely but without feeling. "Nice to meet you too,  
Masaki-san."  
  
"Oh, call me Akuma. It's okay. And can I call you Shinji?"  
  
Shinji shrugged. "It's not important to me."  
  
"How do you like piloting Eva? What's it like?"  
  
Shinji didn't respond. What could he say? Nobody had ever asked him if  
he liked piloting Eva. They just wanted him to do it. It was their reason for  
keeping him here instead of in his old life.  
  
"That good, huh? You know, I'm going to be piloting Eva myself."  
  
Well, if he wanted to know, let him know. "Akuma, piloting Eva is what  
I'm here for. It's the only reason my father even notices me. I can't do  
anything aside from pilot Eva."  
  
Akuma, taken aback, thought that over and asked "Oh, you're having  
problems in school?"  
  
"No, no... it's a lot more personal than that. My mother died in an  
accident and my father abandoned me. Asuka hates me... she's the Second Child.  
My guardian here is a drunk who lives off of cup ramen. I'm worthless,  
Akuma. People depend on me to pilot Eva, but if there was no Eva, I don't  
know if there would be a purpose to my existence."  
  
"Whoa..." said Akuma as he listened to Shinji, slowly frowning as Shinji  
spoke on. "Shinji", he said after the Third Child finished speaking, "I think  
you're looking at it all wrong. You should cheer up. Piloting Eva is a  
valuable service. You're saving humanity from the Angels. It's nothing to  
hate yourself over."  
  
Shinji sighed. "I'm doing other people good by piloting Eva and destroying  
the Angels, but if there weren't any Angels, nobody would notice me. Nobody  
notices me except for piloting Eva against the Angels, anyway. Not even my  
father."  
  
"I'm sorry", said Akuma. "It must feel terrible to have a father like that.  
But he must have his reasons. We're here to protect everyone else, and that's  
a very big thing. Right?" Akuma smiled, and added "Shinji, come on, could  
you at least smile a little bit? Please?"  
  
A forced, wan, smile passed Shinji's face, but it quickly disappeared as  
he talked. "Akuma, the last Angel I fought was this shadow-thing. They left  
me in the Eva for sixteen hours with my only company being the hallucinations  
that the Angel gave me. If it had been just a bit longer, I would have  
suffocated, and I was almost blown up by N2 mines. I only survived because of  
some freak effect that nobody understood. I pilot Eva because it's all I can  
do, Akuma, because it's the only thing which makes people like me even a little  
bit, no matter how terrible it gets."  
  
The other boy thought that over for even longer this time. "That must  
feel terrible, Shinji", he said. "But listen, nobody's that unlikeable. If  
you look around you and realize that there are people around you... Shinji,  
how's this. I want to be friends with you. I was brought here to pilot Eva,  
but I don't think you have to pilot Eva to be a real human being. You sound  
so... so _sad_ and you don't need to be."  
  
"Th... thank you, Akuma." Shinji wondered if the boy meant it. Nobody  
had ever spoken words of kindness to him before. Everyone wanted something.  
  
"Say, let's go and get dinner, and then I can unpack. It must be sitting  
out here all alone that's making you feel like this."  
  
"No", said Shinji, climbing off his perch. "There's just too much pain in  
my life."   
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji was a nice person, thought Akuma, but he was a little depressed.  
No, he was a lot depressed, and he had very good reasons. For Shinji, piloting  
Eva wasn't fun, piloting was all that held him to sanity. All Akuma could do  
would be to try to talk to him and help him out of his depression, but the real  
way to change things would be to change Shinji's life. And Akuma didn't know  
if that was even possible. Fourteen year olds are affected by too many forces  
beyond their control; he'd have to wait until he was an adult. Adults never  
had to worry about that.  
  
"So this is your place", noted Shinji with what little expression his  
normal voice had. Shinji looked around the room, his eyes resting on an old  
bed, a desk, and a closet.  
  
"I hope there's something better", said Akuma. "Maybe they'll move me into  
better quarters later on. There isn't even any place to plug a phone in here."  
  
"I think they will, Akuma. This place looks almost exactly like Rei's  
room. Like they're not really expecting the person living here to use it for  
anything, just to stay here as a rest between missions."  
  
"Rei?"  
  
"Ayanami Rei. The First Child. I'm sure you'll meet her pretty soon.  
There's something strange about her. She hardly ever shows any emotion, and  
nobody knows where she's from or who her family is or anything."  
  
"Oh". said Akuma as he unpacked a row of model-building magazines,  
balancing them near the wall on the back edge of the desk. "She never calls  
up anyone? My mother wants me to call home regularly."  
  
"No. They're probably dead. It must be nice to have a normal family,  
Akuma. I... oh, I should have guessed. Don't get angry at me. I'll bet  
they're not your real parents."  
  
"Hm? Yeah, they're my parents. Why did you ever think...?"  
  
"Then you're not like Asuka. I made a comment when she was talking to her  
mother on the phone. I told her it was nice to have a real mother. It was  
her foster mother. It turned out her real mother killed herself a long time  
before. So Asuka got mad at me. I didn't think anyone around here had a  
normal family." Was Shinji imagining it, or did Akuma smirk at that for some  
reason?  
  
"Asuka's one of the people I'll meet tomorrow too, right, Shinji?" asked  
Akuma, hanging a row of shirts up in the closet.  
  
"Right."  
  
"My sister Mayuka doesn't have a real mother... but Mom treats her like  
her own." Shinji nodded politely but didn't say anything. "Shinji? Are  
you okay?"  
  
"I'm sorry I'm not the best of company, Akuma."  
  
Akuma hung a row of shirts up in the closet. There was barely enough room.  
NERV built billion yen robots; couldn't they afford a decent-sized closet?  
  
"Well, that's that", said Akuma, closing the closet firmly. "I'll see you  
around. If you stay here any longer your friend Misato will get very  
worried."  
  
"I doubt she'll really miss me, Akuma. I'd like to stay a little longer  
and talk. I never get a chance to talk to anybody. At least nobody who cares  
about my presence aside from as an Eva pilot...."  
  
Oh-oh, thought Akuma. He's doing it again. "Listen, Shinji, maybe you  
can come over here tomorrow and show me the way to school. We can talk while  
we're walking. I've never been there before anyway, and the people here don't  
seem very interested in helping me, so I need someone to show me the way."  
  
"All right. I'll see you tomorrow, Akuma."  
  
"Goodbye, Shinji", said Akuma as Shinji left. Akuma unpacked his pajamas  
and changed, then went to bed. What a big day, he thought. He saw pictures  
of the Evas, he enrolled in school, and found out he was going to pilot a real  
giant robot like he had hoped. And he met his first friend here at school.  
Tomorrow would be an even bigger day. Akuma wondered what NERV and the  
Evangelion units would be like, in person, not just in a set of glossy  
brochures. He wondered who else he would meet--at least those other people  
that Shinji mentioned. And he hoped that everyone else would be a little more  
cheerful than Shinji. Shinji had had a rough life, but really.  
  
At any rate, it wouldn't be long until he found out.  
  
  
Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 1  
Friendly Angel, Come To Me  
  
And it was evening, and it was morning, Akuma's first day at Tokyo-3.  
Akuma leisurely put on his new school uniform. At least NERV provided him with  
those. He was just finished buttoning his vest when he heard a knock on the  
door. "Hello?" answered Akuma.  
  
"It's me, Shinji. You wanted to know where the school was, so we could  
walk there together. Open up."  
  
"Oh. Right, I did", said Akuma. "You mean we have to be there this  
early?"  
  
"It starts at 8. It's 7:40. We'll be late."  
  
"It what?" replied Akuma. He wouldn't be late, he could just telep-- no,  
wait, he couldn't. Not with Shinji around waiting to go with him. Why did he  
ever agree to this? "Shinji, how far away is it?"  
  
"It's twenty minutes away."  
  
Figures, thought Akuma. "Hold on! Just another minute...." Akuma rushed  
around the room fast enough to blow loose papers around, combing his hair in  
fifteen seconds, collecting his notebooks and searching for his keys. "Okay!"  
he said, opening the door.  
  
Shinji's eyes alit on a yet-unmade bed. Akuma caught his glance and  
said "Never mind that. We have to go, right?" He quickly closed the door on  
the sloppiness and let Shinji lead the way out.  
  
But there was still something else he had to do. Halfway down the street,  
Akuma pointed to a spot on the horizon. "Shinji, look over there!" he  
exclaimed. "Isn't that the Eva?"  
  
Shinji turned, just as Akuma had expected. "No, that's a water tank", he  
replied.  
  
Not that Akuma didn't know that. But the question served its purpose. In  
the few seconds it took for Shinji to turn away, Akuma split in two, one of  
himself quickly floating away through a wall.  
  
Shinji rapidly turned back towards Akuma, then shook his head and shrugged,  
as if something just eluded him. "I thought I saw..."  
  
"What?" asked Akuma.  
  
"I thought I saw someone floating behind you. From the corner of my eye.  
You looked a little distracted... maybe you saw it too."  
  
"No", said Akuma. "I didn't see anything... what did it look like?"  
  
"Not sure. I saw Rei like that once. One moment she was there, and the  
next, she was gone. Anyway, we'd better get moving."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma was more than a little distracted. He had double thoughts, so he  
could control both bodies separately, but he wasn't really two separate  
people, and he had to constantly assimilate two sets of experiences both going  
on at the same time. Parallel processing on the same CPU, his grandmother  
had compared it to.  
  
Gathering his strength, he--the he in the wall--concentrated. The world  
shimmered around him and he was at the train station. That should be far  
enough. Akuma picked up a phone, deposited his 100 yen, and dialed.  
  
"Hello? Jurai Sasami speaking."   
  
"Hi, Aunt Sasami? It's me, Akuma. I'm just calling like Mom asked so I  
can tell her and Dad that I'm here and I'm safe and everything worked out fine  
and despite what they said I really am getting a chance to pilot a giant  
robot. Are they there?"  
  
Akuma heard the sound of someone grabbing the phone. "Hey, watch it", said  
Sasami faintly on the other end.  
  
"Akuma-chan? It's so good to hear from you. Are you having fun?" asked  
Ryouko.  
  
"Yeah, we're glad you called", said Tenchi. Akuma imagined his mother and  
father on the other end, his mother pushing her face close to his father's  
regardless of any feeble protestations.  
  
"Yeah. Remember when you said that they probably weren't going to pick me  
as a robot pilot? They did. I got really lucky. There must be twenty people  
my age here and they picked me. I hardly met any of them yet though."  
  
"Make any new friends yet?" asked Tenchi.  
  
"One. His name's Shinji. He's had a really bad family life and I sort of  
feel sorry for him. He feels sorry for himself a lot too."  
  
"How's your dorms?" asked Tenchi.  
  
"They're terrible. I think there's some kind of mistake, though. Shinji  
says his is much better. Oh, and the cafeteria food is decent, you don't have  
to worry if I'm going to be eating well."  
  
"Seen any girls you like?" asked Ryouko.  
  
"Mom, I've only been here for around nine hours, not counting sleep. I  
haven't met anyone except Shinji and a few people from Marduk and some of them  
sounded really creepy. I-- oooof." Akuma felt a sensation in his intestines.  
  
"Akuma-chan, are you using the restroom while you're split in two?"  
  
Yes, he was. Well, his other half was. "Ah, eh. Mom, I'm in a hurry."  
  
"Akuma-chan, I hope you're being careful about all your powers", said  
Tenchi. "The existence of Jurai is probably a bigger secret than those robots  
you're getting to use, and it would be best if we kept it that way."  
  
"All right, Dad. It's not like anyone can see me doing this. Look, I'll  
call you later, okay? Classes are going to start and I don't want to stay in  
two places for another hour."  
  
"Okay, Akuma-chan", said Ryouko. "Bye, and we love you", she said, Tenchi  
joining in only a few moments after she started.  
  
Akuma hung up the phone, ran to where nobody could see him, and teleported  
back to the school, where he was in a restroom stall, waiting. He merged his  
two bodies together (his waste luckily merging in the toilet) and ran out.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma stood at the front of the class and introduced himself. "I'm Masaki  
Akuma, age 14", he said, writing the kanji on the blackboard. "Nice to know  
you."  
  
The class all introduced themselves in response, one row at a time. Akuma  
paid particular attention to the other Children. Shinji, of course, he had  
already met. Asuka, sitting to the right of his own desk, was a red-haired  
foreigner who turned up her nose at him as she gave him her name. She didn't  
seem as depressed as Shinji, but Akuma wasn't sure if that was good or bad.  
  
Sitting way to the back of the classroom, and near a window, was the other  
Child, Ayanami Rei. Her hair was a paler blue than even anyone in his own  
family, and her eyes were red. He had never seen eyes like those on a regular  
human before. Not only that, but the longer Akuma looked at her, the more  
something about her felt very wrong. She never looked anywhere else except at  
the teacher and at her work, not even out the window. She didn't doodle,  
scratch itches, yawn, or do any of the little things anyone else would do. No  
wonder Shinji thought she was so strange.  
  
Akuma waited through all the introductions. Suzuhara Touji. Douki Hikari.  
All the others. As he sat down, he resolved to find out about that strange  
girl that seemed so mysterious.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma ate his lunch quickly. He walked over to Rei, vaguely suspecting  
that talking to her would be completely useless, but intending to meet her  
anyway and see on his own how much she was like the rumors. "Hello,  
Ayanami-san", he said.  
  
"Hello."  
  
"So where are you from?"  
  
Rei just stared at her books emotionlessly, not answering.  
  
Akuma stammered a little and asked a very important question. "Do you have  
a boyfriend, Rei?" There, he said it.  
  
Rei looked up and quietly said "No", then looked down again.  
  
Akuma thought a while, not knowing how to continue his thought, and  
finally asked "What's it like piloting the Eva?"  
  
"It's what Commander Ikari orders to me to do", replied Rei nonchalantly.  
Not exactly an answer to the question.  
  
"Hah. Give it up", said Touji. "You're talking to Ayanami Rei there.  
She's worse than Shinji used to be. Nobody knows anything about her, and she  
won't tell anyone. It's like she's from a completely different planet."  
  
No, thought Akuma. That, he could deal with. "Is she...", said Akuma,  
and hesitated, finally swirling a finger in the air near his head. "Is she  
sick?"  
  
"Not as far as anyone knows", replied Touji. "And she's been like that as  
long as I've been here." He looked at his lunch but, glimpsing Hikari near  
himself watching his every move, forced himself to take several more bites.  
  
"My father brought her here", explained Shinji. "I don't understand it.  
She hardly shows any feelings herself but she's the only one who can get him to  
show any towards anyone else."  
  
"Isn't that right, Rei?" said Touji, poking her with a chopstick from the  
lunch Hikari gave him.  
  
Rei grabbed the chopstick from Touji, before he could react, and let it  
drop from her fingers onto her desk. "Talk to Commander Ikari", she replied.  
  
* * * * *  
  
After classes finished for the day, Touji took Akuma aside. "So you're  
the Fourth Child?"  
  
"Right."  
  
"You know, Kensuke wanted to be chosen as the Fourth Child."  
  
"Oh. Anyway, I have to go now. Since I'm the Fourth Child, I need to do  
synchronization tests." Akuma began to walk away. "I should have been there  
hours earlier without ever coming to school, but they delayed it."  
  
"Not so fast. Tell me." Touji grabbed Akuma's shoulder. "You suddenly  
come in from nowhere and you get a job that a lot of us would envy. Who are  
your parents? What kind of promises did you make in order to get picked? If  
you can tell them to make you a pilot, can you tell them to bring my sister  
here?"  
  
"I just got lucky. My parents have nothing to do with this place. I  
didn't tell anyone anything." He took Touji's arm by the wrist, and moved it  
off of his shoulder.  
  
"Hey, are you trying to start a fight? Why don't you just answer me  
instead of..." Touji grabbed Akuma again, whereupon Akuma picked up Touji's  
arm by the wrist and squeezed it, hard. Touji's face turned pale. "Let me  
go!" said Touji.  
  
"You let me go."  
  
"Fine", said Touji, releasing Akuma's shoulder and letting him go on his  
way. Well, it figured someone named Akuma could fight. Though that wasn't  
exactly fighting.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Wow! said Akuma as the moving walkway entered the Geofront. It was huge.  
Sure, Washuu had bigger lab spaces, but they were all empty. There were people  
all over this one, doing things. "Is this where the Evas are, Shinji-kun?"  
  
"It's farther in. The place is pretty big, but you get used to it."  
  
A well-dressed woman with long hair waited by the end of the walkway. She  
waved to the two children, and Shinji waved back, seeming to recognize her.  
"Hello, Misato", said Shinji.  
  
Akuma looked at the woman, took in her figure and stared at her chest,  
which was just a bit below eye level for him. That's Misato? She certainly  
didn't look drunk, and Akuma understood why everyone in the class was so crazy  
over her. "Hello", he said. "I'm..."  
  
"You must be the Fourth Child. Masaki Akuma. I'm Katsuragi Misato. I'm  
Commander of Operations here, so you're working for me now." She smiled at  
him... wow what a smile... and Akuma nodded back.  
  
"_You're_ the woman Shinji's living with? Shinji, I never expected...."  
  
"Shinji and I are like family", said Misato, hugging Shinji suddenly.  
Akuma turned a little bit red watching, a reaction which seemed to satisfy  
Misato, whereupon she let go of Shinji. "Anyway, if you come with me, I'll  
take you to the Evangelion units. The synchronization test will start very  
soon."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma gaped at the huge robot that stood tethered in the bay. Someone  
tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a bundle. It was a blonde woman  
scientist. Not as attractive as Misato. "Here's your plugsuit", she said.  
"Now go ahead and put it on."  
  
"Put this on?" asked Akuma.  
  
Ritsuko nodded.  
  
He was going to pilot a giant robot! Akuma put the suit on eagerly, afraid  
that at any moment someone would come by and tell him that there had been a  
terrible mistake and that the job was to go to Touji or Kensuke. Just a few  
more minutes. Then it would start; then he would be inside Evangelion Unit 03.  
  
When he left the dressing room, Asuka and Rei had arrived. "Good luck with  
your sync ratio", said Asuka sweetly. "You might be able to get thirty  
percent."  
  
"Misato-san, is thirty percent good or bad?" asked Akuma.  
  
"Bad. Anyway, you can get into the entry plug now, and you'll be placed in  
the cockpit. And we expect at least fifty percent or more."  
  
Rei just watched him.  
  
Akuma climbed into the entry plug and waited. "You're in", said Misato's  
voice. He looked around himself and spotted the speakers, as well as a screen  
and a few controls and levers. "Can you see everything clearly?" asked Misato.  
  
"Yeah, how do I control this?"  
  
"There's some wires on the appliances, and a direct mental link through  
the LCL. You'll get feedback, so with a little practice you'll quickly learn  
how to use the controls and how to react instinctively."  
  
"LCL?"  
  
"It's a kind of oxygen-bearing liquid. Just relax and breathe normally.  
Sorry we couldn't explain more, we didn't want you to spend hours thinking  
about it and panicking. Don't worry, you're not going to drown. And it may  
smell a bit at first, but Maya got the idea of adding chemicals to numb the  
pilot's sense of smell, so it should go away."  
  
Akuma sat in the plug and waited as the liquid filled around him. Misato  
didn't know. He'd done this in real water. He couldn't be hurt by the  
pressures at the bottom of his family's lake, and he didn't need oxygen, so  
breathing liquid was no problem for him. As the liquid rose past his mouth,  
he took a big gulp and inhaled the LCL. That was the last step. He was a  
pilot now!  
  
* * * * *  
  
Maya read off a set of numbers to Misato, Ritsuko, and the rest of the  
staff. "Synchronization fifty percent... sixty... seventy... stabilizing  
at seventy-two for now. Brainwave activity near-normal... unusually high  
epsilon waves but within acceptable parameters. Respiration... zero?"  
  
Misato spoke into the transmitter. "Akuma, are you holding your breath?  
You have to breathe in the LCL normally."  
  
"I am!" yelled Akuma. "What's wrong?"  
  
"There's a flaw in the oxygen supply system. The gauge is stuck at zero.  
It thinks you're not using any oxygen at all, and we can't be sure you're  
getting enough oxygen if we can't measure it. You've got to get out of there."  
  
As realization came to Akuma, his hopes plummeted. Oh no. He screwed up.  
It was the last step to becoming a pilot and not only was there no way he could  
pass it, things could get a lot worse. The existence of people from outer  
space was something that had to be kept secret from everyone else. If Misato  
and the others figured it out, anything could happen, and most of what could  
happen would be bad.  
  
Akuma thought furiously. "Is there some way I could stay in here and only  
stop the test when I smell the air going bad?"  
  
"There's no way. Carbon dioxide is odorless, and your sense of smell is  
numbed in there anyway."  
  
"Can I... can I practice for as long as it takes to use the air that's  
already in here?"  
  
"Akuma, that's a crazy idea. We've got to get you out. This isn't a game.  
You'll suffocate in there if you don't get any oxygen! Can't you realize that?"  
  
"Fine, fine", said Akuma, disappointed. "How do I get out?"  
  
"We're going to eject you. Hold on tight."  
  
Outside the Eva, Ritsuko ordered the eject sequence. The operators sent  
out the sequence to the Eva, and... nothing happened.  
  
Misato watched the readings. "Something's wrong. Akuma, the eject's not  
working. We're going to--"  
  
Maya, a junior operator, yelled out some bad news. "We're reading a huge  
energy surge inside Unit 03! Source two meters below the pilot, spreading  
rapidly. Something completely foreign... blue pattern... it's an Angel!"  
  
"It must have entered the unit when it was brought from America", said  
Ritsuko. "And all this time it was waiting for the Eva to be activated so it  
could take control."  
  
"The whole base is in danger!" exclaimed Misato. "If only we had done the  
test outside the Geofront as was originally planned." She spoke into her  
microphone. "Akuma, can you hear me? We've got to get you out! We believe  
the Eva's been taken over...."  
  
"Misato, I don't know what to---" said Akuma. Static suddenly enveloped  
Akuma's voice and then the line went dead.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Gendo, from his command post, was listening to the whole exchange. The  
thirteenth Angel. What a surprise. SEELE had delayed the test on Unit 03 to  
see if they could release the seventeenth Angel inside the complex. But now  
there was a wild card. There were two Angels in that Unit. Would they fight,  
or join forces? Neither of those had ever happened before. Would they ignore  
each other? Should NERV-- could NERV--take out two Angels in one blow?  
  
The Third Impact that those old men in SEELE wanted was not the one that  
he wanted, or that Yui had intended. It was too early; he hadn't been able to  
get access to Adam yet. So the best option was the last. The Thirteenth had  
to be destroyed, and if they got the Seventeenth too in the process, well, it  
couldn't be helped.  
  
"Evangelion Unit 03 is now to be considered the Thirteenth Angel",  
commanded Gendo. "Destroy it at all costs." A moment of sentimentality  
entered his thoughts. Yui herself could keep the plan in line. "Send in  
Unit 01."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"No! He's my friend!" shouted Shinji. "If I go into Unit 01 and kill him  
I'll be killing another human being! I can't do it."  
  
Stubborn boy, thought Gendo. Of course he didn't know. Very well.  
"Since Unit 02 isn't ready, send in Unit 00. Rei, you're to destroy Unit 03.  
Unit 01 is to be readied for Shinji for backup immediately afterwards."  
  
"Keep the bindings in place! Restrain the Eva!" yelled Misato. "If we can  
buy enough time to figure out a way to get Akuma out of there...."  
  
Ritsuko looked at her, a bit of sadness in her normally scientific  
demeanor. "That's not likely. Rei is our only chance."  
  
The operators worked feverishly, skipping the normal check procedures so  
Rei could make an emergency entry. Rei entered the plug of her Eva as Unit 03  
struggled against its bonds. Just as the liquid filled her capsule, Unit 03  
broke loose and began to grapple with the still-inert Unit 00.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma felt the entire fight. It was like the Eva was his own body, but he  
had no control over it. "No!" he yelled. "I've got to stop it somehow! Eva,  
stop! Please!"  
  
The machine didn't listen.  
  
Wait a minute, there was _something_ he could do aside from just sitting  
there and feeling his hands wringing a proportional neck. He animated a chunk  
of rock into a giant robot. Couldn't he animate a real giant robot? It was  
worth a try.  
  
Akuma concentrated. He felt the metal around him... metal he could move  
and reshape. Metal that... what? That didn't make any sense. All he felt  
was a skin. But he knew there was an Eva around him, he could feel it directly  
through the neural link. There was only one explanation. This wasn't a giant  
robot. Eva-03 was alive.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Unit 00 sprung to life and the two behemoths grappled with each other  
savagely right in the docking area in Central Dogma. It was like a battle of  
ancient times, when giants walked the earth. When they hit each other, the  
sounds echoed throughout the facility. The destruction they left behind was  
like that of a small-scale hurricane.  
  
And caught in the eye of that hurricane, thought Misato, were two young  
children, forced to fight battles in a war that nobody understood, not even the  
adults, let alone them.  
  
"New reading", said Maya. "Pattern blue detected in right leg of Unit 00.  
It's spreading through contact!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma looked around himself desperately for some way to escape the  
catastrophe without betraying his family. He pounded against the wall of the  
plug, denting it under his inhumanly tough hands.  
  
And then he realized. Why pound it? He could blast his way through. The  
Eva was getting smashed, beaten up, and broken anyway. A blast could as  
easily be an exploding transformer or just the aftereffects of a punch. Nobody  
outside would notice the difference. Energy flowed through Akuma's hands, and  
he released it in a direction that hopefully pointed towards the surface. The  
wall burst open, exposing the interior of the Eva. It softly pulsed with  
life, but it didn't seem to be flesh. It was completely different from  
anything he'd ever seen.  
  
Another few blasts tore a bundle of cords and made him enough room that he  
could get to the surface... had to be careful in case he made it through and  
someone saw... and Akuma reached metal. He pulled back the metal plates and  
emerged into the air... facing straight down. Now there was one last  
dilemma. How could he get down without revealing anything?  
  
* * * * *  
  
The LCL poured in around Shinji. "Backup", his father had said. What did  
"Backup" mean he was supposed to do?  
  
"Shinji, you're in", said Gendo over the speakers. "Now, cut off Rei's  
leg. Do it now!"  
  
"She'll feel it. I won't."  
  
"Do it", said Rei, as her image flickered into existence on the screen in  
front of Shinji. "You must."  
  
Suddenly Unit 03 went quiet. Shinji spotted something on its neck. Akuma!  
He was alive! The Eva must have rejected the entry plug for some reason.  
Maybe it didn't want a pilot because it was now piloted by an Angel instead of  
a human being. And that broke the connection in its spine.  
  
He picked the boy off of the Eva even as it began to move again, a rippling  
happening in its neck, which smoothed out, chunks of metal breaking off and  
revealing some completely different substance underneath. It must be trying to  
reconnect around the plug, he thought. Shinji put Akuma down on the ground  
and then cried as he drove his knife through what he knew Rei still had to  
feel as her own leg. She yelled out in pain, but came to her senses after a  
few seconds. I know I could never recover that fast, thought Shinji.  
  
Rei activated her AT Field and drew her knife, cutting into Eva 03 while it  
was still trying to bypass the missing area in its spine. The knife went in  
and the field expanded through the Eva's body, destroying enough of the Angel  
to make it lose coherence.  
  
* * * * *  
  
How could he get down, Akuma wondered? He didn't need to wonder for long,  
though, as a third Eva, one painted with the numerals 01, reached for him. It  
plucked him off of Unit 03's neck and gently put him down on the ground. Akuma  
watched as the Eva tore into Unit 00's leg, and then how Unit 00 created a  
luminescent field of force and stabbed the rogue Eva. Awesome, thought Akuma.  
So that's what it meant for the Evas to be alive. It's like the Light Hawk  
Wings.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The renegade Eva exploded, expending its energy harmlessly against  
Unit 00's AT field.  
  
"Eva Unit 03 destroyed", said Maya. "Thirteenth Angel destroyed. Get a  
medical team for the pilots."  
  
Wheeeeew, thought Misato. That was close, much too close. A lot of  
machinery was destroyed, but the pilots were alive. Hopefully... who knows  
what injuries they might have suffered, especially the new boy whose Eva had  
been demolished? But there was something strange about that kid. He seemed a  
little too eager to be in the Eva. Like he couldn't really get hurt, like it  
was all just a game. He didn't seem frightened so much as... desperate.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"I'm all right. I'm telling you I'm all right", said Akuma. "You don't  
need to take me to the hospital."  
  
"Leave the boy alone", commanded Gendou over the speakers. The paramedics  
paused, puzzled a bit, and decided to follow the instructions and back off.  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Ikari", said Akuma. "How long is it going to take for the  
next Eva?"  
  
"There will be no next Eva for a long time, if ever. I'm placing you on  
standby until you are needed."  
  
So much for giant robots, thought Akuma. Even if he could do something  
about that oxygen measurement, he was never going to be a pilot now. The Eva  
was dead. His parents had told him not to expect to become a pilot, that it  
was too unlikely; he'd have to tell them they were right. So now he would be  
just an ordinary school pupil, which is what he came here to be anyway.  
  
"That's how my father is", said Shinji. "He only cares about his work  
here. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry I had to hurt Rei, I'm sorry about  
everything."  
  
"Shinji", said Akuma, "you don't have to be sorry. Not everything that  
happens is your fault just because you're there. And thank you for saving me  
from the Eva. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't done that."  
  
Shinji nodded politely to Akuma. Maybe Akuma was right. He blamed himself  
too much. He shrugged the thought off, as in a corner of his mind he realized  
that feeling guilty was the only way he had not to feel helpless.  
  
"And one other thing...", said Akuma. It was a little corny, but maybe he  
could make Shinji feel a little better. It was how he felt, anyway.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm not an Eva pilot any more", said Akuma, patting Shinji on the back.  
"You are. I want you to carry on for me, as my friend, okay? Good luck,  
Shinji."  
  
END CHAPTER 1.  
  
Author's note: No, this does not take place instead of the Kaworu episode. It  
takes place instead of the Touji episode. I wrote the starting scene using  
images similar to the Kaworu episode, but that isn't when it actually happens.  



	2. Suspicion

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 2  
Suspicion  
  
"So, Akuma, I hear your job was a bust", said Touji. "The Eva went crazy  
and blew up. I guess you're not a pilot any more, right?" He glanced at his  
lunch, wrapped with a nice pink ribbon, then quickly tore the ribbon off and  
crumpled it up inside a piece of paper.  
  
"I'm still on standby, but basically, yeah", replied Akuma.  
  
"Well, I guess you're one of us now." Touji laughed. "You're just like  
poor Kensuke. Wanting so bad to be a pilot, and then all of a sudden..." He  
snapped his fingers. "Nothing! Don't worry, lots of guys want to be pilots,  
but most of us can't be. You're too normal to be a pilot anyway. And me, I  
wasn't chosen, but I really don't care."  
  
"Are you sure about that? I mean that you don't care, not about the normal  
part."  
  
"'Course I'm sure, Akuma", he replied , not sounding convincing at all.  
"Tell me, what was it like?"  
  
"They put you in a plugsuit, and then they put you in a tube where you have  
to breathe liquid, and then you control the Eva. I didn't get much chance to  
control it. It was taken over by an Angel. We all want to pilot Evas, but  
that Angel wanted to do it so badly that if it was human it probably would  
have been willing to wash dishes for a month for the chance."  
  
"Go on", said Kensuke, pulling his chair up to Akuma's desk.  
  
"Well, um, there's not much after that. It felt really bad and then I got  
rescued by Shinji."  
  
"Don't feel bad", said Kensuke. "Me and Touji also got rescued by Shinji  
once!"  
  
"Hey, don't tell him that", said Touji, nibbling bits of food. It really  
didn't taste that terrible, he thought. Hikari tried hard, and besides her  
whole family ate that stuff regularly.  
  
"Maybe I can ask Shinji about what happened..." said Akuma.  
  
"No, that's okay", said Kensuke. "Do you know how dull Shinji is?"  
  
"I'm not dull", said a voice from three desks over.  
  
Kensuke leaned over to whisper. "He's dull. He's never even gotten to  
first base with Rei. He doesn't even look at her. I saw you looking at her  
yesterday... maybe you can get a date with her. Shinji's never gonna."  
  
Touji laughed. "Kensuke, don't tease Akuma. None of us could ever get a  
date with Rei. She's creepy anyway."  
  
"Maybe a new boy will bring something out in her", said Kensuke. "C'mon,  
Akuma, ask her out."  
  
"I... I don't know, I just met her and..." said Akuma. "Maybe I'll talk  
to her, get to know her better first, and I'll ask her some other day."  
  
"That's the spirit!" said Kensuke, patting Akuma on the back.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Ikari Gendo sat at his desk. He was alone, except for Rei. She always  
reminded him of Yui a bit, but just a bit, like a photograph, faded from being  
in the sun for ten years. He thought about the events of the previous day, that  
child, and the Angel hidden in the Eva. Were SEELE's suspicions right? When  
the boy arrived and went to them, they had done another scan, and it gave the  
same results as the last time. Potential for an AT Field of incredible power.  
Yet he had shown no unusual actions. Unless... that other Angel, the one in  
the Eva. What if he didn't _want_ to be seen as unusual yet. He would  
probably synchronize with the Eva strangely, so he brought the other Angel in  
to kill it, to avoid blowing his cover. It fit perfectly.  
  
Only, why would a being 6000 years old, from the time of the Secret Dead  
Sea Scrolls, bother pretending to be a 14 year old in the first place? Maybe  
he was partly human, in some way, like Rei.  
  
Rei continued sitting in front of him, patiently staring at the wall.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Back "home", thought Akuma. Back in a bare room with nothing to recommend  
it. That just _couldn't_ be right. No carpet, no curtains, everything  
spartan. He could put up a poster or something, but that wouldn't really help  
much. And the room looked even worse after he cleaned it of his own dirty  
clothes and food wrappers. Maybe if he asked Gendo to give him a different  
room, that'd work, but it was too late in the day for that.  
  
At any rate, he had to get out of the room. It'd drive him crazy to stay  
there. Akuma concentrated and disappeared, rematerializing by another set of  
apartments. He knocked on the door.  
  
Asuka opened the door and said "We don't need any." She looked behind  
herself, where Shinji was approaching; she waited for Shinji to get close to  
the door; and then she closed it on Akuma.  
  
Shinji opened it again. "Akuma?"  
  
"Yep, it's me, Shinji. I wanted to go over some homework with you and  
Asuka. Besides, I can't stay at my apartment. You saw what it looked like."  
  
Shinji nodded. "Come on in."  
  
* * * * *  
  
  
"Shinji, are you okay?" asked Akuma as he sat on the floor, laying out  
papers and books haphazardly in front of himself. "You seem a little down."  
  
"He's always like that!" said Asuka, sitting across from Akuma with her own  
stack of homework material. "I thought you two already met."  
  
"I was just trying to cheer him up. He did save me from the Eva yesterday  
and I thought I'd try being friendly. You know, maybe you should try that  
too someday, Asuka."  
  
"If I had saved you instead of Shinji you might have still been a pilot  
today."  
  
"You sound like my aunt Aeka."  
  
"Is that a compliment, Devilman?"  
  
"Not really."  
  
"At least you have a family. I've never heard of anyone around here having  
a real family. So could you tell me about them?"  
  
Akuma tried to figure out what best to say, since he really didn't want to  
say too much. Half the people in his family were too old for him to just  
casually mention them without being very careful. He couldn't talk about Jurai,  
or trees, or where Mayuka was from, or exactly how people like Aeka and Sasami  
were related to him.  
  
Shinji caught wind of Akuma's hesitation; he wondered just what kind of  
horrific family secrets Akuma had. Akuma could have been an abandoned child,  
alone until he was adopted by the Masakis. There might be people in his family  
who were sick, or insane, or autistic, worse even than Rei. Mustering the  
courage to speak out, for once, Shinji stopped Asuka. "He came here to do  
homework, Asuka."  
  
"So?" answered Asuka. "Who says we can't talk before doing homework?"  
  
"No, no, Shinji's right", said Akuma. "I think we'd better get going on  
the homework. By the way, did you start it already, Asuka?"  
  
"Oh, I... not yet, but it shouldn't be hard." Asuka laid out her books  
and notes on the floor mat. She turned towards the relatively silent Shinji  
and asked him with a sneer "Did you misplace them, Shinji?"  
  
"Asuka", said Akuma, "stop that. Shinji's our friend and you have no  
reason to treat him this way." Glancing at Shinji he added "Shinji, please  
slap her, okay?"  
  
"But I can't..." answered Shinji.  
  
Akuma sighed. "I didn't mean that. Everybody takes things so seriously  
around here."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii", said a voice from the entrance. Akuma recognized it  
was Misato even before she opened the door. "Who's taking things seriously  
around here?" she asked, while walking to the fridge. Misato pulled out a  
beer, sat down in a chair, and let out a sigh of relief after her long, hard,  
day. "Oh, you have a friend over?" she wondered.  
  
"I'm Akuma", said Akuma, looking up from his papers. "I was the Fourth  
Child... once. We met then. I'm just here for a homework session."  
  
"Oh, I know who you are", replied Misato. "Can I get you three something?  
Some ramen maybe?"  
  
Akuma began to announce his agreement. It wasn't wonderful food, but he was  
starting to get hungry. Not that he could ever get _really_ hungry. "I..."  
  
"We're not hungry", replied Asuka, speaking for everyone whether they  
wanted her to or not. Unfortunately for Akuma, that included him.  
  
So much for food, thought Akuma. Of course, he could always ask her again,  
but the others were already assuming that dinner wouldn't be served at the  
moment. They knew what to expect from everyone else, just like the folks at  
home; they really were like family.  
  
"Say, you seem to know each other pretty well", asked Akuma. "Shinji...  
anyone... you know Rei too, right? Could you tell me a little about her?"  
  
"Wonder Girl? Hmmph", answered Asuka. "Yeah, I know her. She's hardly  
human. She never has any ideas of her own. I'll bet if Commander Ikari  
ordered her to kill herself, she would."  
  
"Do you know what kind of movies she likes?"  
  
"What kind of a question is that, Devilman?" retorted Asuka. "You're not  
going to ask her on a date, are you?" Akuma blinked, eyeing Asuka. As Asuka  
eyed him back, she came to a realization. "Wait a minute", she said, "you  
_are_ going to ask her on a date. Well, she's not going to say yes, and if  
she does you're not going to have any fun, so I wouldn't bother if I were you."  
  
"Hey, everyone in the class who's not a pilot is curious about her. And I  
just want to get to know her better... Shinji, is Rei really like that?"  
  
"Shinji, you say, Shinji. You know I'm here too?" complained Asuka.  
  
Akuma ignored the noise and waited for Shinji's answer. "Well...", said  
Shinji, "she's never interested in anything. I've never even heard of her  
watching TV, let alone a movie. She doesn't have any hobbies and she doesn't  
do anything for fun."  
  
"That sounds boring. There has to be something."  
  
"Maybe you're right", replied Shinji. "Maybe there is. But it must be  
hard to find."  
  
* * * * *  
  
In an office, Gendou sat, hands clasped and head shadowed, thinking. What  
to do to find out the truth about that boy. Well, there was one thing he could  
try right now. "Rei?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Find out all you can about that boy Akuma. Give me any information you  
get, and don't tell anyone else. If you have to ask him questions, do, but  
don't make him suspicious."  
  
Rei looked back at Gendou. A fleeting expression of puzzlement passed  
over her face, but soon disappeared. "I'll do that", she answered.  
  
"And here are the things for you to find out...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The first to finish was Akuma. Asuka snatched his last sheet out of his  
hands and held it up in front of herself, unable to believe it. "You finished  
first!"  
  
"Yeah, I finished first. Is it bothering you? You aren't even a half page  
behind. What's so important about finishing first?"  
  
"I don't see how you could do that. Was your grandmother a super-genius or  
something?"  
  
"Not something", responded Akuma. "Look, I'm sorry... you're pilots and  
I'm not and I know you've got other things to do so it's hard to concentrate on  
your homework. I'm not trying to compete with you. I'm not really part of your  
group at all."  
  
"I don't understand", said Shinji.  
  
"I keep feeling like I'm, well, half pilot and half not. Like I graduated  
from school, but it turned out it was all a big mistake and now I'm back in  
the class with everyone else."  
  
"You're starting to sound like Shinji without the Eva", said Asuka.  
  
"You're still a pilot if they ever bring in another Eva", said Misato.  
"Besides, it's not all fun and games. It's dangerous. You could have gotten  
killed yourself when that Angel cut off the oxygen supply and took over your   
Eva."  
  
Akuma shook his head. "But... but... Hey, Asuka, you enjoy being a  
pilot, don't you? You keep talking a lot about it and you seem pretty proud  
that you do it. It's fun, isn't it?"  
  
"It's only pilots like myself who can save Tokyo-3!" exclaimed Asuka. "Of  
course it's dangerous, but I can handle the danger!"  
  
Misato shook her head. "Akuma, we're basically caught in the middle of a  
war. Don't ever forget that. You got out lucky. Now tell that to all your  
classmates that are crazy about giant robots, okay?"  
  
She sounds a lot like Mom, thought Akuma. Even drinks a lot too. "I,  
well... okay."  
  
Misato grinned. "Now that that's settled, what do you think of Tokyo-3?"  
  
"Um, I came here to do homework, but I think most of the people are nice,  
except Commander Ikari... sorry, Shinji..."  
  
"You don't have to be sorry. I just wish he was different", said Shinji.  
  
"... and all those guys at the Marduk Institute."  
  
"I didn't go anywhere like that before coming here", said Shinji. "They  
just sent me a notice and I came."  
  
"Mabe they changed their procedures?" wondered Misato. "So what happened  
next?"  
  
"Well, I came here to this room with a secretary and some guys hiding  
behind the wall", replied Akuma. "They asked me for a blood sample, gave me  
some papers and pictures, and sent me over here. It was a pretty long ride."  
  
Misato looked at Shinji. Guessing what she wanted, Shinji said "No,  
Misato, they never asked me for that, and I didn't go on any side trips."  
  
"Akuma, did you give them a sample?" asked Misato, as she got up and walked  
to the microwave.  
  
"No, I, um, don't like needles", replied Akuma.  
  
And because of that, thought Misato, he refused to give a sample to a  
bunch of people that he was obviously supposed to obey. And they let it slide.  
If only it was that easy for everyone else. 'Misato, go skip your date and  
supervise the tests.' 'No.' 'Misato, here's a stack of paperwork.' 'I'm sorry,  
I'd rather relax and have a few beers.' She chuckled wryly at the thought.  
"Well, that's good", she said, passing out cups of ramen to the starving  
students. Except Asuka.  
  
* * * * *  
  
There was no mirror in this apartment, but Akuma didn't need one. He split  
in two and tried to psych himself up practicing in front of his second self.  
"Rei, I'd like to know if you're busy Saturday evening." "Rei, if you like  
movies maybe we could go see something then."  
  
It was useless. Oh, he could say it, and mime a smile back at himself,  
but he didn't feel any less nervous. And nobody ever saw Rei smile anyway.  
Akuma gathered his books, combined his bodies, went to the cafeteria to grab  
some breakfast, and walked to school. He didn't dare save time by sleeping  
and eating late and teleporting in instead of walking; if anyone saw him  
eating so close to the start of class that he shouldn't have time to get there,  
then found out he got there anyway, there would be hell to pay.  
  
* * * * *  
  
School went on just like the last day, except that the novelty of having  
the only ex-Eva pilot in the world was starting to wear off of the class, so  
Akuma wasn't the target of quite as many questions. Things were starting to  
settle into a routine, which was rather boring in places, but which also gave  
everyone a shared experience to talk and complain about.  
  
"By the way, do you know about the test next Monday, Akuma?" asked Touji.  
  
"The what?"  
  
"The test next Monday. History. The one that last week's study handout  
covers?"  
  
"I wasn't here last week", answered Akuma.  
  
"Guess you have no choice but to get what you need and study, then", said  
Touji. He grinned. "I'm sure it'll be as easy to get a date with Rei next  
week as it is today."  
  
"Yeah, as in not at all either way", added Kensuke.  
  
"I haven't asked her anything yet!" said Akuma. "She could always say  
yes, you know. Anyway I have to try to catch Commander Ikari. I think that  
they made a mistake with my rooms and I need to find him so he can give me some  
better ones."  
  
* * * * *  
  
School ended at 3, so there was still some time left over before all the  
adults went home. Or there would be if Akuma could ever _find_ Gendou.  
  
Spotting a man in a NERV uniform, Akuma yelled "Hey, mister!"  
  
"Hm?" replied the man. "Are you looking for something?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm trying to find Ikari Gendou's office. It's supposed to be  
in the left side."  
  
"Can't help you", answered the man. "I don't think he's anywhere around  
here... you could try the directory over there on that wall." He pointed past  
Akuma's shoulder.  
  
Akuma walked over to the directory as the man walked away. It was... oh  
wait, Gendo was on level L, not left. That meant a whole lot of walking, since  
he couldn't very well pass through walls or teleport with all these people  
around. They did _not_ make it easy to find things in Tokyo-3.  
  
Forty-five minutes later, Akuma found Gendou's office and raised his fist  
to knock at the door. He paused, wishing he could ask his aunt Aeka for help,  
since she was much better at dealing with bureaucracy than he was, but Akuma  
pushed the thought out of his mind. He was away from his family in spirit,  
even if home was a minute away by teleport, and he had to do things on his own  
now.  
  
Akuma rapped at the door. "Come in", answered a voice that was either  
emotionless, or very, very, tired.  
  
Gendou gaped as his visitor opened the door. That boy... what could he be  
here for? If he was the seventeenth Angel, and had something against Gendou,  
all his plans could be ruined. Or he could be after Rei... Gendou looked  
to Rei, sitting silently next to his desk. Gendou reminded himself that that  
was _not_ certain, that that _could_ be just an ordinary child who has a freak  
ability to set off SEELE machinery. Having an Angel destroy his Eva could be  
coincidence. There was no need to worry; he was seeing too many phantoms.  
Gendou watched as the once Fourth Child mimed his own facial expression,  
hoping the boy wasn't toying with him. Then the boy took his gaze off of  
Gendou himself and looked at Rei instead. He _was_ after her! But for what?  
  
Akuma gaped at Gendou. He was at the right place all right... but what  
was Rei doing here? He smiled at Rei for a second, and turned to the  
Commander. "Hello, Rei", he said. "I mean hello Commander Ikari but Rei too."  
  
"Hello", replied Gendou. He didn't seem to have noticed or responded to  
Akuma's slip. Rei only nodded curtly.  
  
"I'd like to ask... Commander Ikari, sir, there's a problem with my room.  
I must have the worst room in Tokyo-3. Could you change it, sir? I mean to  
something with some more windows and paint and curtains and carpet?"  
  
"Is that it?" asked Gendou.  
  
Akuma nodded in agreement to Gendou's shadowed face. Was that man  
deliberately trying to look intimidating?  
  
Gendou repeated, "Is that it?"  
  
"It... it is", answered Akuma. "I mean, no, it's not! Rei, would you go  
on a date with me? This Saturday? Uhh, two in the afternoon? I don't know  
what you like to do but I'm sure we can think of something." His heart pounded  
hard and he regretted it the moment the words came out of his mouth. It  
wasn't the right time, Rei must be here on some very important business, and it  
looked bad in front of Commander Ikari... but then Akuma didn't work for him  
any more.  
  
Gendou thought it over, looking at Akuma a bit suspiciously. Rei looked  
from Akuma to Gendou and her eyes settled on a position between them, until  
Gendou came to a decision. He turned his face out of the shadows, to Rei, and  
told her "Rei. It's okay, you can do it. And Akuma, I'll insure that you  
have a new room by the middle of next week."  
  
Rei nodded to Gendou and answered "I'll come with you then, Akuma", barely  
even glancing back at Akuma as she spoke.  
  
Akuma stood dumbfounded.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The computer files whizzed by under Misato's touch. She was no  
professional with these systems like Ritsuko was, but still, she wasn't doing  
half bad. Here it was, Masaki Akuma. Medical records on file, none; why was  
she not surprised? Parents, Masaki Tenchi and Ryouko. Whoever invented those  
names must have had a _weird_ sense of humor, she thought. "Heaven and  
Earth", "Spirit Caller"... that was like the NERV logo. She could just  
imagine some bored graphic designer who learned a little bit about what NERV  
really did, sneaking that fig leaf onto the logo.  
  
As well as no medical record, the kid had no school record--of course. And  
he was sent here directly by "Marduk Institute Committee I". The Marduk  
Institute, Misato had learned, was just a cover for the higher-ups at NERV.  
But none of the other kids had the "Committee I" note in their file.  
  
It all pointed to one undeniable fact: someone planted the kid here. Time  
for a big drink, and then a nasty hangover, and then for some real  
investigation. Of course, she could just go demand an explanation from  
Gendou. But that would only waste everyone's time: hers, his, and the time of  
the people that would get assigned to watch her closely for the next few weeks.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Akuma, you're serious? Rei said she'd go on a date with you?" asked  
Shinji.  
  
"Honest, she really did", replied his friend. He was glad, at least, that  
Shinji seemed to be talking a little more, getting out of his depression.  
Except right when Akuma had met Shinji, he'd been like that for at least a  
week. "But it was strange. There she was in Gendou's office and he told her  
to do it. Like he was her father or something... No, not even that. Like it  
was some kind of official duty."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Is there any girl you like, Shinji?"  
  
"Uhh..."  
  
"Maybe that German girl Asuka? She and you are husband and wife, arguing  
so much."  
  
"I wouldn't know. I haven't lived in a house with a husband and wife since  
Mom died ten years ago."  
  
"Oh. I'm sorry, Shinji. It's not really true, anyway. Mom and Dad don't  
act like that. Though Mom and Aunt Aeka are like that... sometimes they argue  
but they're really pretty good friends."  
  
Shinji thought that over. "So you think someone can seem not to like you  
but they really do, Akuma?"  
  
"Sometimes people don't act the way they feel. But sometimes they do. If  
someone doesn't seem to like you it can be either one."  
  
"I never learned to tell the difference, Akuma. I'm not sure there really  
is one. If someone acts like they don't care, does it really matter if they  
feel something else and they're hiding it from everyone?"  
  
"I don't know, but Asuka can't be that bad. My sister was like that when  
she was Asuka's age."  
  
"Asuka?" replied Shinji, puzzled. "Oh, Asuka. Right."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Still without a mirror, Akuma split in two to see what he was doing when he  
combed his hair, and then he remerged carefully so as not to disturb it. He  
had his best clothes on and he figured out where he and Rei could go. But in  
his haste he had missed something very important. Would they meet at her  
place or his place? And it was already five minutes before two.  
  
As Akuma paced by the door, there was a knock on it. He hoped that it was  
Rei; if Rei didn't come soon, he'd have to try to teleport to her place and  
hope nobody saw him.  
  
Akuma opened the door and let his guest, who was indeed Rei, into the  
room. "Uhh, sorry for the way my room looks, Rei. It's the room they gave  
me, I admit it's not much of a place to stay."  
  
"You have a place to sleep and a place to sit. You can turn on the light."  
said Rei.  
  
"But it's hardly a room. Aw, forget it. I was thinking of going to the  
mall and roller-skating." He remembered that Rei didn't have a lot of  
interests. "Have you ever done that before?"  
  
"No", replied Rei. "By the way, why are you here?"  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Why you're here. Your purpose for coming to NERV."  
  
"Huh? Rei... let's go, okay? We can have some fun."  
  
"Fun... Shinji once asked me about that", said Rei.  
  
"Did I... did I say something wrong?"  
  
Rei shook her head.  
  
Akuma took Rei's hand gently and led her outside, then dropped it as he  
locked the door. She followed along; at least she liked him enough to do that.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma gripped a bar on the side and pushed himself out onto the rink. Rei  
followed behind him, and he glanced back at her every so often. For someone  
who never did it before, he thought, she's pretty good.  
  
He rounded a corner and felt his feet slide apart. Oops... bad angle.  
Akuma flailed around in the air and fell to the ground, unable to fly, fall  
through, teleport, or escape his predicament in any other way without revealing  
his family secret. With a *whomp*, Akuma landed flat on his behind.  
  
Rei just watched him silently, smoothly moving along with no fumbles. When  
she reached him a few seconds later, she bent down and helped him up onto his  
feet.  
  
Akuma laughed a little. "I'm usually a little better than that." Rei just  
watched him, though. "Oh, you're not going to say anything", he continued.  
"That's good, I, well, I feel a little nervous with a girl telling me what I  
did wrong...."  
  
"I have to bring something up. Did you bring the Angel into Unit 04?" This  
disturbed Akuma, somehow, more than if Rei had just laughed at seeing his butt  
hit the rink.  
  
Akuma had been expecting nothing, or maybe an "it's okay" remark, or maybe  
even a nasty slap. This, though, was out of left field. "Rei, I don't get it.  
Why are you asking me these things?"  
  
"Because that's what I was told to do. But I'm finished now."  
  
"You know, you are pretty good at skating, though. A natural." Akuma  
watched for a smile, but it didn't work. "Are you having fun?" he asked, as  
he started skating again and Rei followed.  
  
Rei thought it over for a half lap, guessing what the teenager meant.  
"Yes", she replied.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma could only get so tired from normal activity, just like he could  
only get so hungry. Still, he eventually got tired enough and hungry enough.  
Rei stood on her skates, less affected than he was. How could he tell when she  
was tired of skating when she never said anything meaningful? "Rei... would  
you like to stay here or should we go get something to eat?" he asked.  
  
"I don't care. I usually eat at this time", replied the albino. "By the  
way, do you understand what you are?"  
  
"I guess if you eat now, let's eat then. I don't understand the rest of  
that." A sudden thought came to him. "Rei, do you like me? Are you trying to  
drive me off?"  
  
"Drive you off?" She seemed honestly puzzled by the concept.  
  
"By never talking and by asking these funny things."  
  
"That's not it", answered Rei calmly.  
  
"Then I don't understand. It was Gendou, he asked you to ask me all this  
stuff, right?"  
  
"He really explains very little about his requests to me."  
  
Well, thought Akuma, that answers the question without really answering it  
outright. Akuma shook his head. "Just forget it, okay? Is there anything  
special you eat?"  
  
"I don't eat meat."  
  
So she has a quirk, anyway, thought Akuma. It makes her seem a little more  
human. "I'll eat almost anything. How about a teriyaki soy burger and some  
fries? It's only fast food but I'm paying, and it has to be better than  
cafeteria food."  
  
Rei nodded. But she didn't say anything.  
  
"Rei, I really wish you'd... open up a little more. Why don't we go  
somewhere and talk?" Akuma hoped that Rei wouldn't think he was trying to take  
advantage of her, but Rei didn't seem like the kind of person who jumps to  
conclusions. "The sun should be setting now and there's nothing but a lot of  
grass west of the mall. We could sit there and watch it, or something."  
  
Rei nodded. Again. Akuma got the feeling that things weren't going  
particularly well.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma found a rock outcropping and cleared away a spot for Rei, then for  
himself. He handed her her food and drink. "This looks like a good spot",  
said Akuma. "Maybe we can see the green flash", said Akuma. "You're supposed  
to be able to see this bit of green _just_ as the sun goes down."  
  
"I know", said Rei, while looking down at the burger she was unwrapping.  
  
"You do?"  
  
Rei nodded to Akuma. "Yes."  
  
"Never mind... Rei, you've been pretty silent since you stopped asking me  
that stuff Gendou wanted. There has to be something you can talk about.  
Where are you from? We don't know a whole lot about each other, you know."  
  
"I've always been here", she answered. "My whole life was at Tokyo-3."  
  
"Did you ever know your parents?"  
  
"I don't have any parents. Commander Ikari takes care of me." Rei paused  
and asked a question. "What about yours, Akuma?"  
  
"You're not asking this because Gendou wants you to, are you?"  
  
Rei shook her head.  
  
Akuma thought. He could talk about them safely if the conversation didn't  
switch to great grandparents and royalty. Besides, if he didn't say anything,  
he'd look like an idiot in front of this girl. "Well, my Dad teaches kendo in  
a few rooms we built near the family shrine. Mom is a prospector."  
  
"Prospector?"  
  
"Yeah. She goes out into spac-- into the mountains, I mean, and looks  
around for minerals. She finds a lot of really valuable stuff that nobody  
else ever can." I'm too nervous, thought Akuma. Have to calm down. "I have a  
sister, Mayuka. She's a college freshman, she's thinking of studying political  
science like Sasami did... oh, Sasami's related, I guess you could say she's  
my aunt."  
  
"I don't have a family", said Rei.  
  
"Rei, can I ask you something? I mean I hope you don't take this wrong."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Just talk. Talk about something. Anything."  
  
"I can't, Akuma. I don't know anything to talk about."  
  
Akuma sighed. "Look at the sunset over there. Do you think it's pretty?  
Everyone likes sunsets."  
  
"I suppose it's pretty, then. I understand you're trying to be nice to me.  
Why do you do that?"  
  
"Because I'm supposed to be on a date with you. And because I'm used to  
being around happy people, not sad people like you and Shinji, not nasty  
people like Asuka. It just seems wrong for you to be like this. You know,  
yesterday Touji told me that I was too normal to have stayed an Evangelion  
pilot. I think I know what he meant." Akuma gulped. He watched Rei for  
sudden outbursts, guessing, too late, that he shouldn't have said that. "Rei,  
I'm sorry, I don't mean that you're not normal...."  
  
"I'm not normal, Akuma."  
  
"You're not? You don't just mean, um, that you're quiet, do you?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "No. I know that I'm not like you. But I don't know  
how I know."  
  
Akuma was about to reply, but glanced back to the sun. Didn't want to miss  
it. "Hold on, Rei, look at the sun right now."  
  
Rei watched as the sun sank below the horizon, the uppermost tip turning  
bright green for just a moment before it vanished.  
  
"If I kiss you now, will you tell Gendou?"  
  
"Yes", replied Rei.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Yosho and Washuu wandered the streets of Paris. Neither of them showed  
their true ages, of course, but Yosho had long since given up looking old, and  
Washuu had long since given up looking young. As they passed a restaurant,  
Washuu walked up to the menu and read it silently to herself, glancing once  
or twice at the holographic dictionary hidden in her wristwatch.  
  
"You know, Washuu, I never thought my French would be better than yours",  
said Yosho.  
  
"You forget, Yosho dear, that I was last on Earth around 6000 years ago",  
she replied. "French", added Washuu, "wasn't."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"It's funny, Rei", said Akuma as he turned off a late-night sitcom rerun,  
"I never met anyone who's never watched television before. Never thought I'd  
ask this about TV, but did you enjoy yourself? Or what about the whole day?"  
  
"It was different. Commander Ikari will be disappointed, though."  
  
"He can be disappointed. Anyway, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. I'm  
sorry you didn't have a lot of fun. If there's some way I can make it up to  
you...."  
  
"If there is, I'll let you know", said Rei as she left. "Goodbye, Akuma."  
  
"Yeah. Goodbye, Rei." If she had been any other girl, she would have been  
brushing him off by talking that way. But he thought it wasn't, for Rei, or  
at least hoped it wasn't. Well, he did get to meet Rei and be with her and  
talk to her for a little while. She didn't hate him.  
  
If only Rei could become a little more human, thought Akuma as he  
teleported out of his clothes and onto his bed.  
  
END CHAPTER 2.  



	3. Tree of Life

  
Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 3  
Tree of Life  
  
It had been 21 years since Sasami came to Earth, a stowaway on her sister's  
spaceship. By the standards of the older Juraians, that wasn't long at all,  
but by the standards of anyone who lived through it, it was a lifetime. On the  
Earth, Sasami had grown from a skinny freckled kid to a beautiful woman. She  
always knew how she would grow up, tall, long aqua hair descending past her  
shoulders, and with a figure that made her sister and Ryouko jealous years  
before she even developed it. Luckily for their egos, she grew out of her  
childhood crush on Tenchi and had gone on to have a normal Earth life... which  
as a princess of a planet thousands of light years away, was something quite  
unexpected.  
  
Sasami knocked hard on the door underneath the stairs. There was no  
response. She guessed, then, what the next step should be--she leaned on it.  
That would, of course, be the perfect time for the door to suddenly fly open  
and let her fall through.  
  
The door indeed behaved as expected. Sasami stumbled in, quickly balanced  
herself, and walked into the lab.  
  
A tall and busty redheaded woman in a lab coat looked up from her equipment  
and greeted her. She had shed her false age years ago, together with Yosho.  
"Hello, Sasami. You still want me to call you that, right?"  
  
"I don't know", replied the blue-haired woman. "Do you still want me to  
call you Washuu-chan? To you I may be your sister from long, long, ago, and  
you can call me that if you wish, but to everyone else I'm Sasami. I've always  
been known that way."  
  
Washuu considered that and nodded in acknowledgement. "No, that's okay,  
Sasami. I should have known better than to ask. Anyway", she explained, "as  
for what I'm doing, I'm studying the Angels." It was a very straightforward  
answer; Washuu never played jokes on or tried to confuse Sasami. Much, anyway.  
  
"I figured as much", replied Sasami. "You've been working on this for the  
past week. When Akuma went to Tokyo-3, you started researching to find out  
what he was up against. And you haven't stopped since."  
  
"The answer's coming. We just need to give it a little time." Washuu  
pointed to a plastic bag covered by a shimmering charteruse field and added  
"By the way, want some French bread? It's still warm, I put it in stasis as  
soon as we left the restaurant."  
  
"No thanks, I already ate. And did you know I'm going to be doing my own  
investigation? Let's see who finds out more first."  
  
"Oh? You never struck me as a scientist, Sasami."  
  
Sasami shook her head. "Remember what I do. I'm investigating things for  
the government. It turned out that our branch has been investigating NERV, so  
all I needed to do to get on the job myself was be transferred. Yosho helped  
pull a few strings... he has a _lot_ of old family friends to call in favors  
on. And I'm on the case.  
  
"Besides", she added, smiling, "I'm pretty curious too. It must run in the  
family, sister."  
  
* * * * *  
  
As a child, Sasami had cooked constantly. Not only did she cook, but she  
also cleaned, did all sorts of housework, and generally made everyone happy by  
playing the part of a dutiful little child.  
  
Everyone except herself, that is. She did enjoy cooking, but she  
eventually came to understand what was wrong with that scenario. There were  
other people in the house; other people in the family. It was their home too,  
and they had to bear some of the responsibility of maintaining it. She got  
together with Aeka, who had herself been doing far much more housework than she  
was used to as a spoiled princess, and they confronted everyone else with their  
laziness. They would do their share, but they would no longer be maids.  
  
From then on, Sasami never cooked more than once a week. Today the chef  
was Ryouko, slaving over pots, pans, and woks while Sasami sat in the living  
room flipping channels and watching television.  
  
The phone began to beep angrily, drowning out the minimally exciting story  
about the Tokyo-2 replanting program. Sasami muted the television's sound on  
the remote control, and picked up the phone. "Hello, Masaki residence", she  
answered into it. "Jurai Sasami speaking."  
  
"Hello", said the voice on the phone. "My name is Misa... Sasami? Is  
that you? I don't believe it. It's been so long! Remember me, Misato, from  
college?"  
  
"Misato?" replied Sasami, wondering just what was going on. "I haven't  
heard from you since, well, since then. Of course it's me. How did you  
ever manage to find me here?"  
  
Misato sounded almost apologetic. "Well, I... it's a long story. I was  
trying to find the parents of a boy named Masaki Akuma. Masaki Tenchi and  
Ryouko."  
  
"Oh, Ryouko's in the kitchen burning rice, should I get her?"  
  
"It's okay", answered Misato. "There were a few problems with Akuma's  
records, and I got this crazy idea that his parents were using fake names."  
  
"Nope, they're the real thing."  
  
"So anyway, I called this house up just in case I wasn't getting paranoid.   
Are you two related?"  
  
"A little distantly, but yes we are. Are you okay, Misato? I missed you  
for all those years. What's going on with you?"  
  
"I'm just overworked. It's the way things work in Tokyo-3. Overworked,  
underpaid, and underrested. I'm also getting too paranoid, as you've seen.  
And I have a hangover."  
  
Sasami briefly snickered. That was Misato, all right. "Tokyo-3? I didn't  
know you worked for NERV."  
  
"I didn't know you've heard of NERV, so we're even. What have you been up  
to these days? Find the right guy yet?"  
  
"I'm still single. Somehow I just don't feel like rushing through life.  
And I'm working for the government. I wouldn't say it's really top secret, but  
you know how they are about telling people exactly what you do."  
  
"You don't sound like you've changed one bit, Sasami. You were always the  
mysterious one in our class, and you still are. You know, we really ought to  
get together and talk about old times."  
  
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. And with as big a coincidence  
as this something has to come out of it."  
  
"I'd love to have the company. If you want to come, just go to Tokyo-3  
and ask for a green-level visitor pass. It should get you into the housing  
areas. Nobody's ever visited me in a long time who's not a co-worker or an  
old boyfriend. Oh, or a fourteen-year-old."  
  
"I'll see you around then, Misato. I have to go, Ryouko's about ready.  
It's not really that bad, she cooks like you used to."  
  
"Ooh, my sympathies", said Misato.  
  
"Anyway, will you be in...." Sasami thought. "Tomorrow evening?"  
  
"I should. If you want to be sure, here's my phone number." Misato  
rattled off a string of digits, which Sasami wrote down on a pad near the  
phone. "I'd ask you for yours, but I seem to have already found it."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Seated at the table were Sasami, Washuu, Tenchi, and Yosho. Ryouko brought  
the food out and served it to everyone, then sat down. Sasami lifted a  
spoonful of curry rice to her mouth.  
  
The food was fine, just a bit ordinary. Ryouko could cook perfectly well,  
thought Sasami. Despite what the odder stories in her shoujo manga collection  
depicted, cooking wasn't difficult; all it really took was learning what food  
was supposed to taste like, and then following directions. Ryouko's remaining  
problem was that she never liked to spend a lot of effort doing things, so she  
usually kept all her cooking simple.  
  
"So how is it?", asked Ryouko.  
  
Sasami stayed silent. The question, she knew, wasn't meant for her.  
  
"It's wonderful", answered Tenchi.  
  
"So I see I make you feel good..." replied Ryouko. "How about I keep doing  
that after we're finished eating?"  
  
Ignoring the flirting husband and wife, the other three people at the table  
started to talk among themselves. "I got the strangest phone call just now",  
said Sasami.  
  
"Wrong number, Sasami?" asked Yosho.  
  
"Yes and no. It's an old friend from college. Her name's Misato. It was  
pure coincidence; she didn't even know I live here. She works for NERV, and  
they had some kind of problem with Akuma's records, so she had to call here to  
be sure that everything was right. I haven't talked to her in six years, and  
that's a long time."  
  
Yosho shook his head. "It's not so long, Sasami. You can still talk to  
her as yourself. In another twenty years, you'll need a disguise. In another  
fifty, she might be gone."  
  
"I'm... still young", said Sasami, pausing a bit with the thought that in  
one way, that was not entirely true. But it was close enough. "That hasn't  
happened to me yet, and it's something that I have to try not to think about  
too much. Not if I want to live here on Earth, and I do love Earth."  
  
"I love Earth too, Sasami. And I'm not going back. It'll be hard when  
it happens, but you'll be able to make it through. Just remember one thing.  
We'll always be here, no matter what happens to anyone else."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Sasami rapped on Misato's door three times, then two. After several loud  
noises sounded out from inside the apartment, the door opened and Misato stood  
there, slightly bleary-eyed and holding a can of Ebisu beer. Sometimes,  
thought Sasami, it was hard to remember that this woman's class standing had  
been even higher than her own.  
  
Behind Misato was a penguin. Misato glanced back at it and it waddled away  
into another room. "Hi, Sasami!" she exclaimed. "Come on in. Oh, and don't  
mind Pen-Pen. Sit down, make yourself at home, fill me in on how you've been  
doing."  
  
Sasami let Misato lead her through the apartment to the living room, where  
she motioned to an old couch. They both sat down.  
  
"Man, has it been a long time", said Misato. "Anyway, after we graduated I  
went to work doing research for the government. It didn't work out, but then I  
got the job here and worked my way up. So here I am, Major Katsuragi. I never  
expected you to be living at home, you struck me as more independent than  
that." She opened the can of beer in a fast practiced motion and tossed the  
pull-tab in the trash from across the room. "Oh, want some?"  
  
Sasami shook her head at the offer as she explained. "To tell the truth",  
she answered, "it's an old family homestead. We've owned it for seven hundred  
years and there's always been a lot of people from our family living there."  
  
"That's impressive!" said Misato. "I guess you wouldn't want to leave it,  
then. I don't have any family, you know. It's like almost everybody else  
here. So tell me what it's like living at home."  
  
Sasami knew that that would come up, eventually. She had had to rehearse  
to herself just what she could say and what she couldn't. "Well, we've got a  
lot of people living there. There's my brother Yosho, there's Tenchi and  
Ryouko, their kids Mayuka and Akuma, there's Washuu... she's my brother's  
girlfriend but she's been there a lot longer than that... Tenchi's dad and  
my sister Aeka until recently. And me. And anyone we know who drops in.  
It's a _big_ homestead and it holds a lot of memories for a lot of us. We all  
help take care of the place together, and we keep it safe against our other  
relatives from Jurai." Sasami laughed a little as she said that, but of course  
didn't explain just what Jurai was. "I guess my family's like that. We try to  
be pretty close. Besides, most of us have jobs which let us live in the same  
place. Noboyuki designs buildings, Tenchi teaches in the Masaki dojo...."  
  
"I have myself", replied Misato. "And the pilots. They're really just  
kids. Pen-Pen to mess up the refrigerator, and that's about it. It's still a  
lot to handle. There was this time that Asuka tried to do her homework faster  
than Akuma, just last week. She hates so much to lose, she absolutely has to  
be best at everything." Misato thought a moment about what she had said and  
realized something. "Say, you said you're related to Akuma?"  
  
"Oh, yes. A little distantly related, but he's part of our family. He was  
really excited at coming here to pilot an Eva. Too bad it didn't work out."  
  
"You ought to talk to him about that", said Misato, sipping her Ebisu.  
"Sometimes it seems like he has no sense of danger. Not that it matters any  
more without Unit 03."  
  
Sasami nodded. "His mother's like that too. She also has your taste in  
alcohol and cooking. You ought to meet her someday, maybe next week when she  
has a little free time. I think you'd get along great together. I..."  
  
"What is it, Sasami?" asked Misato.  
  
"It's nothing...." No, it wasn't nothing at all. It was that she still  
had to be mysterious. As far as Misato was concerned, Ryouko came from  
nowhere. Aeka was just engaged to a friend of the family. Sasami's stepmother  
didn't exist. The bonding ceremony uniting Sasami with her tree wasn't just  
(as only a few people knew) unnecessary, it didn't happen. Sasami never spent  
half a galactic year back in the Palace.  
  
All the way back in college, Sasami had considered telling Misato. She  
never did find the right moment, though. By now she knew that Misato was a  
lot less scatterbrained than she sometimes acted in her private moments, and  
would never reveal the secret by accident. She did her job well. But it had  
been six years, and Misato had become a Major in a semi-secret government  
organization. If there was someone she would have to reveal it to, well, she  
would certainly do her job for them quite well too....  
  
"Sasami?" asked Misato.  
  
Sasami smiled at her as best she could. "Just thinking about something.  
Maybe I'll explain it later."  
  
* * * * *  
  
It was the start of another day at the Internal Investigation Department.  
Sasami entered, carrying a cup of coffee with her, and greeted Kaji. "Good  
morning", she said as she stopped at the roughly-shaven man's cubicle. "Guess  
what happened to me this weekend?"  
  
"I give up, what?" asked Kaji as he looked up to talk.  
  
"I met Misato last night. It started out as a coincidence, but we got  
together and talked and drank for a while. Especially her."  
  
"No kidding? I haven't seen her in, oh...."  
  
"Five days, Kaji. You haven't seen her in five days."  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"We did talk for a while and she did mention you, you know. And there's  
more."  
  
"Go for it."  
  
"I'm off the Disney case. The bosses put me on the same case as you.  
NERV. We're going to be partners." Sasami grinned. "I know you and Misato  
still like each other. I'm not going to be doing as much field work as you,  
but if we're both there for some reason and we run across her, I won't get in  
your way."  
  
"I just hope that she and I don't end up on opposite sides." Kaji returned  
the grin to Sasami. "Anyway, if she's too busy to be with me, my bedroom is  
empty and you're always welcome to...." Kaji stopped, since somehow Sasami  
had managed to get her hand into position above his head, holding a cup of  
coffee in a very dangerous way. "Heh", he said. "Can't blame a guy for  
trying."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Sasami was not only a spy for Japan, in a way she was a spy for the planet  
Jurai. In truth, all she did was send back regular reports to the Ministry of  
Information--that is, to her stepmother. It was public information, but in the  
absence of an embassy Jurai had to get the information this way, and the  
situation was still a vast improvement over the situation during the previous  
seven hundred years--that is, it was an improvement over getting nothing at  
all. The job was also an official excuse for her presence on Earth; the  
king's advisors could either write that down in their records, or they could  
write down "runaway princess. Lost control." Needless to say, the first  
option made everyone look better. And finally, her stepmother didn't want her  
to be too accustomed to palace intrigue.  
  
Spying for the IID was a lot like palace intrigue, anyway. Sasami needed a  
job like this; it kept her in practice. She emptied out her NERV folder onto  
her desk, and added the pile of documents she had received from Kaji. Then she  
began to read through the stacks.  
  
The Second Impact, the documents explained, was not caused by a meteor as  
the public had been told. It was caused when the Katsuragi Expedition at the  
South Pole had found Adam, the first Angel, and somehow in the process set off  
the biggest disaster in the history of the world. Well, well, that was  
interesting.  
  
NERV designed and created the Evangelion units, as a line of defense  
against the Angels. That itself was little known, but what was even less known  
was that they were really defending Adam. If the Evangelions ever failed,  
another disaster, a Third Impact, could take place.  
  
It was odd, thought Sasami, that they didn't just blast Adam into space  
where a Third Impact would be no threat. It would take a huge rocket, but  
NERV already had tremendous power and influence and could command the  
resources of a medium-sized nation.  
  
Which was, after all, the problem that Sasami and Kaji had to investigate.  
Supposedly an arm of the United Nations, NERV had been allowed so much freedom  
that it had in fact become a shadow government, which could commandeer its own  
resources and military support and which answered to nobody. Just how did it  
manage to become like this? And what exactly had it been doing behind closed  
doors? Surely protection against the Angels couldn't be the only reason.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Washuu tapped Sasami on the shoulder. "Come on over to the lab, sister.  
I've got something to show you."  
  
Sasami got up and followed Washuu into her lab, considerably less afraid  
than anyone else in the house would have been at the prospect. She seemed to  
have fallen into the niche of 'person for Washuu to explain things to'. "What  
is it?" she asked, closing the door, which melded into the wall invisibly.  
  
"Oh, it's the Angels. I found out where they're from."  
  
"That's great. It may put me out of a job, but it's great", replied  
Sasami, sitting down at a table across from Washuu. "What planet?"  
  
"Earth."  
  
"What? I thought for sure it was an invasion. Jurai isn't going to help  
against internal Earth struggles."  
  
"It may as well be an invasion, but it's certainly internal to Earth.  
They're artifacts of Neo-Atlantis. Look here", said Washuu, motioning to the  
middle of her table. At her gesture, a screen rose from the surface. "These  
are photographs of some of the previous Angels", she said, pointing to a  
montage on the left side. "And these", she said, pointing to a similar  
collection on the right, "are best matches from all the Neo-Atlantis data I  
have on file." The pictures looked, as far as Sasami could tell, identical.  
"I visited Neo-Atlantis six thousand years ago. They were very advanced for  
people on such a primitive planet.  
  
"And", continued Washuu, "I got a great deal of data when I visited. I  
know about their artificial life forms and their attempts to chart the future  
for the human race. It's my belief that the Angels are remnants of  
Neo-Atlantean projects to design a new kind of humans, only these prototypes  
didn't keep the human form.  
  
"Oh, and I also found one other reference. There was an Adam found at the  
South Pole back a few years ago in the 19th century." Sasami suppressed a  
smirk at Washuu's idea of 'a few years'. "It was believed destroyed, but  
somehow it must have survived. The expedition that triggered the Second Impact  
could have been working from these old records."  
  
"That's a lot of good information", said Sasami.  
  
"No, it's not. It's completely useless, unless you want to start telling  
Kaji a few things that you don't want to be telling him, if you get my drift.  
But it's fun to find."  
  
"You know I've never searched for information just to have inf..." Sasami  
thought. And chuckled. "Okay, I guess I have. I was curious. I did want to  
know what was behind it all."  
  
"You're getting better. A few millennia and we'll make a scientist out of  
you yet."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Of course, Washuu had exaggerated. The information she gave wasn't  
_completely_ useless. In fact, some of it could come in pretty handy, with a  
little bit of work.  
  
"Hi!" said Sasami to Kaji, who was sitting in his cubicle drinking morning  
coffee.  
  
Kaji smiled at the woman--after all, she was female, so she deserved a  
smile--before greeting her. "Good morning, Sasami, find anything new yet?"  
  
"As a matter of _fact_", replied Sasami, drawing out a pause before  
finishing, "I did. Take a look at this." Sasami handed Kaji a glossy printout  
from some old piece of microfilm. It still smelled of toner.  
  
Kaji took the paper and read it, not expecting more than another joke  
article to pin near his desk. "Hmm", he said, reading off some of the words.  
"Captain Nemo... 1898... Adam at the South Pole... _what_? Sasami, just  
where did you find this?"  
  
"It was in a National Geographic supplement. One that they forgot to  
index. I guess you could say I got lucky."  
  
"I'll say. I think I know what the next step is."  
  
Sasami nodded. "We have to check it out. Confirm that this is the same  
Adam the Katsuragi Expedition found."  
  
"Right", said Kaji. "All you have to do is sneak into NERV and get a  
snapshot of the thing to compare it to your photo. It must be a very  
difficult and dangerous job and require the utmost preparation...." He didn't  
sound quite like he meant it.  
  
"Kaji", replied Sasami, "there's a punchline. Isn't there?"  
  
"Of course there is. Look in my desk. Top drawer, under the Cheetos."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Kaji's snapshots showed a giant figure, crucified in the middle of an  
equally large room full of liquid. On its face was a mask covered with  
painted eyes.  
  
It was immediately obvious to Sasami that it didn't fit the description  
in the article, even though she did feel there was something oddly  
familiar about it. "Well, that wasn't it", said Sasami. "What do you think we  
should do?"  
  
"More work", answered Kaji.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Kaji, officially employed by NERV as well as the government, had a much  
easier time than Sasami at getting into restricted areas, so he did most of  
the field work. Meanwhile, Sasami stayed behind and helped analyze the data.  
Of course, like many other desk job workers, she occasionally took some of her  
work home. But unlike them, she didn't do it for lack of time.  
  
"Find anything, Washuu?" asked Sasami.  
  
"Nope", answered the redhead, leaning over her computer banks. "I'm going  
to run that video you got through a search, though... you should feel really  
lucky I'm helping you, sister. The Earthlings' machines aren't advanced enough  
to search images like this." There was a knock on the door. "Wait a moment",  
said Washuu, "we have a guest."  
  
Washuu pressed a few buttons and the door changed position. It now faced  
straight down, at about eye level. Another button press later, the door opened  
up, unceremoniously dumping Ryouko onto the floor. As Ryouko rose into mid-air  
she frowned at Washuu, who replied "Hey, it got you in here fast, didn't it?"  
  
"Hello Ryouko", said Sasami, "Washuu's searching right now."  
  
Washuu's display suddenly lit up, divided into three horizontally adjacent  
segments. Images flashed through each segment for several seconds; then, the  
first image stopped and displayed the image of a crab. The second, and then  
the third, segments showed a similar sequence. Finally, a bell rang.  
  
"Jackpot!", exclaimed Washuu. "Here we go."  
  
She manipulated the controls a bit more, and the slot machine display  
disappeared to be replaced by a more computer-like screen. On one side was one  
of Kaji's images. On the other was another image, looking very similar. It  
showed a huge figure, in a tank this time, of a similar pale color and  
wearing the same seven-eyed mask.  
  
"This one's called Lilith", explained Washuu.  
  
"This is what Akuma was assigned to protect?" asked Ryouko.  
  
"Seems that way", answered Washuu. "It's not quite one of the Angels.  
Neo-Atlantis didn't make it, they found it and used it. And now NERV. I can  
think of a lot of things that it could be used for, and too many of them would  
have an impact on the whole human race. And I do mean 'impact'."  
  
"Akuma's not going to get hurt, is he?"  
  
"Oh, the boy will be fine. It's everyone else who'll have problems. You  
see, if the Angels are from Neo-Atlantis, and they fuse with Lilith, the result  
will be a disaster. The Neo-Atlanteans believed they could control it, and I  
wouldn't be surprised if the humans do, too."  
  
Finishing Washuu's sentence, Sasami added "And of course they can't. I  
think I understand...."  
  
"No", replied Washuu. "Maybe the humans can. But then, it will be even  
worse...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Lilith?" asked Kaji. "Everyone who knows about it at all says that it's  
Adam. Do you mean that they have another one locked away somewhere?"  
  
"That's certainly possible", answered Sasami. "You're always getting new  
data... maybe you'll find something in it. It shouldn't be too hard to  
search."  
  
"I don't understand how you keep finding out this kind of stuff in the  
first place. It's amazing."  
  
"Hey, if I explain it, how am I going to stay mysterious?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
A man spoke, faceless and voiced by a machine, behind a black slab labelled  
with the number "08". "The Internal Investigation Division is getting too  
close. They have found out about Lilith."  
  
"The IID's job is to be our backup", replied the tinny voice behind number  
04. "As a way to leak information if we must embarrass NERV in the future.  
If they are starting to do enough real research to find out about us, their  
attentions must be redirected and their information sources found and  
eliminated."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Meanwhile, as SEELE creaked into motion against the IID, Kaji and Sasami  
(with a little help from a certain redheaded scientist behind the scenes) were  
discovering more and more.  
  
"Now here's something interesting, Kaji", noted Sasami. And for once, she  
thought, she had managed to find out an interesting piece of information by  
herself instead of needing Washuu's help. "All these people... Gendou,  
Fuyutsuki... I think I'm onto something. They worked for an agency named  
GEHIRN, before NERV. And so did Gendou's late wife. So we know that whatever  
NERV is up to, they've been up to it since the Second Impact."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Back in the dark room full of faceless voices, a report was made, from the  
one labelled "07". "The information source has been found. The new agent  
Sasami was transferred in abruptly, for unknown reasons. Her background is  
less than unmarred; her records don't exist before 1994, except for a birth  
record, and we suspect it may be fake."  
  
"An immigrant?" asked 03.  
  
"Perhaps. She lives in the same house where the suspected seventeenth  
Angel can be found. In the year of the supposed birth of Masaki Akuma, a  
Masaki Katsuhito vanished without a trace."  
  
"I agree" said another invisible voice. "They could be survivors of  
Neo-Atlantis. Keeping the last Angel in their care forever under different  
names. But there is not enough information to confirm that possibility."  
  
"Then", said 03 again, "confirmation needs to be done."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The campus of the University of Kyoto was fairly deserted in the evening.  
Aside from the janitors, a few late-working professors and grad students, and  
the inevitable recreation center crowds, few people were left. But that  
included one eighteen-year-old who really liked her great grand-aunt's cooking.  
  
Masaki Mayuka pulled open the door of the Tsurumaki Biology Center. It was  
easy, she thought. She picked this place because there was rarely anyone  
around, but if someone did wander by, all she had to do was pretend that she  
belonged there. People wouldn't give her a second thought. Mayuka passed by  
the janitor and found a room far enough away to give her a minute of privacy.  
  
There were two special items that Mayuka always carried around. One was  
the Tenchi sword, not that she ever used it anyway. The other was a jewel,  
of alien origin, but not such an alien thing to her. Mayuka unzipped a  
hidden pocket in her yellow dress and took the jewel out. She placed it down  
on the tiled floor, concentrated, and a whitish aura spun out of it and swept  
her and it along.  
  
Blink. The Dark Dimension.  
  
Mayuka gazed at the jewel again, pouring more mental energy into it. Once  
again the aura enveloped her.  
  
Blink. A few hundred yards away from her stood the Masaki house.  
  
Mayuka walked the rest of the distance. Too bad she couldn't teleport for  
real, she thought, as she slid the door aside and removed her shoes. "Hi!"  
she said.  
  
"Hi!" shouted Sasami from the kitchen.  
  
Akuma appeared out of nowhere, right in front of Mayuka, startling her for  
a moment. "Hey, watch it!" she yelled at him. "What if you teleported right  
where I was?"  
  
"Look, Mayuka", he said. "I'm immaterial. It wouldn't have hurt you."  
  
"It's still pretty rude." Mayuka glanced around, seeing who had arrived  
and who hadn't. "Now..." she said, "we have to wait for everyone else. I bet  
Mom and Dad will be first."  
  
* * * * *  
  
It wasn't a long wait. They popped in, quite literally. Ryouko waved,  
kicked off her shoes, and asked "So how are you kids? Tenchi and I hardly  
ever get a chance to see you any more." Ryouko hugged Mayuka and Akuma in  
turn, and then stepped aside while Tenchi did the same.  
  
"You know I come back a lot, Mom", replied Mayuka. "And Akuma hasn't  
even been away a month. I'm doing well."  
  
"Yeah, me too", said Akuma.  
  
"Did you pick your major yet, Mayuka?" asked Tenchi.  
  
"Come on. I have almost a year to decide, Dad! Oh, all right. I might  
pick history. Or political science like Aunt Sasami did." She smiled. "Why  
don't you ask Akuma if he found a girlfriend yet?"  
  
"Wait", replied Akuma. "There is a girl I like. We went roller skating  
but I'm not sure what she thinks of me."  
  
"And what about you, dear?" Ryouko asked Mayuka. "Since you're so curious  
about Akuma...."  
  
"I don't think I'm going to find a girlfriend."  
  
"Don't be smart with me."  
  
A door materialized and opened into the dining room. Out of it walked  
Washuu, Yosho, Aeka, and Noboyuki, all looking the same age as everyone else  
except the two teens. Aeka reached over to pull a piece of lint off of  
Noboyuki's shirt.  
  
"It's ready!" shouted Sasami's voice from the kitchen. She walked in,  
apron over her business slacks and blouse, carrying a huge bowl of rice, which  
she placed in front of everyone.  
  
"Here, let me help" said Tenchi, walking towards the kitchen. Sasami stood  
in his way and motioned him back to his seat. "All right", he said.  
  
* * * * *  
  
There are several different ways to spy. There are the hidden cameras and  
microphones, and the computer searches. There is talking to the neighbors.  
And if everything else fails, there's sending someone in person. Besides, how  
else do you place the hidden cameras and microphones?  
  
A middle-aged man in a tan business suit knocked on the glass in the door.  
He was carrying a large box of green detergent. "Hello... may I interest you  
in...."  
  
"We're _eating_", replied Aeka and Mayuka almost at once. Mayuka got up  
and pulled the blinds down on the salesman.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Good, he thought. It could have been worse. They could have let him in,  
and then he would have had to spend an hour washing clothes in front of  
everyone. He withdrew a handful of pea-sized spheres from his pocket and  
tossed two up onto the roof, then pressed the others under window frames and  
other shadowed places.  
  
It was strange, having to sneak bugs near a house. It wasn't a  
factory, it wasn't a boardroom or an embassy; it was a house. A plain old  
ordinary house. There must be something _very_ special about this particular  
house that merited spending all this effort on it.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Spy work? Against NERV? Really?" asked Akuma.  
  
"Of course", said Sasami, chewing a mouthful of rice. "Doesn't it all seem  
a little, well, strange to you? The group has a big enough budget to make  
those Evangelion units and enough influence to just take the power supply of  
all of Tokyo when it needs it. And nobody questions anything. At first I was  
just curious, but now, I think there's a real danger. A big danger, and I'm  
just _this_ far from finding out exactly what it is."  
  
"Well", replied Akuma, "they're just fighting the invaders. You know, like  
Gundam."  
  
"Myaaaaau! Myaaaaau!" cried Ryo-ohki, interrupting the conversation.  
"Myaaaaau!" the cabbit cried again as she deposited several small round objects  
on the table over the napkins. They didn't appear important, but Ryo-ohki  
looked quite sincere in wanting somebody to get them. "So what did you bring  
me?" asked Ryouko, picking up and petting Ryo-ohki. "Well, whatever it is,  
I'm sure you thought we could use it."  
  
Washuu already had an instrument out, this one looking very much like a  
salt shaker.  
  
"Do you know what they are?" asked Ryouko.  
  
"Instruments", replied Washuu. "The design's from Star Trek. Oh, wait,  
you mean _these_." Washuu pointed at the spheres with her instrument, and a  
pale red field surrounded them. "Someone's been bugging us", she said.  
"Excellent workmanship. With one of these, you could hear a full conversation  
from five yards away through anything except a stasis field."  
  
"How dare they?" said Aeka. "Eavesdropping on a house full of royalty."  
  
"Hah, princess", replied Ryouko. "Royalty makes an excellent target."  
  
Sasami watched as Washuu took the force field full of bugs away to her lab.  
She considered them, the first signs that this was starting to get really  
serious. "I don't think they're after you, Aeka. They might not even be after  
Akuma. It's just a hunch, but I think they're after me. I spy on NERV...  
they spy back. It almost makes me feel like I'm on Jurai."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"All gone", announced Washuu. "Well, all out of range. Earthlings never  
really got the hang of transmitting through dimensional barriers. I also got  
two that Ryo-ohki didn't find."  
  
"So what can we do?" asked Mayuka.  
  
"Well", explained Sasami, "destroy the bugs. The only problem is that it  
lets them know that we're onto them. Either that or we leave them here and  
watch what we say, which would cramp everyone's life, a lot.  
  
"If this was Jurai", she continued, "and the bugs came from Sabaku, we'd  
have a few days to prepare before they could try again. It takes a long time  
for even a small committee to decide on anything. I don't think that NERV  
would be much faster. Even if they have a contingency plan, they still have  
to figure out just what our new situation is, and that takes time."  
  
Aeka nodded. "So we wait until they do something else, and in the meantime  
we try to think up a plan ourselves." Left unspoken but well-understood was  
one important fact: _they_ were a family, not a committee. They might argue,  
they might act on their own, but ultimately they could depend on each other's  
cooperation. NERV could never do that.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"No signal for three days", said the voice hidden behind the number "05".  
  
"The bugs must be gone. They have discovered one plan. But no plan stands  
alone", said another voice. Light suddenly shone on a pillar amidst the   
circle of voices, and pictures began to project onto all four of its sides.  
"We've imaged the troublesome woman."  
  
The projection showed a fuzzy image, of a blue-haired woman walking down  
the street away from a whitish squat building that must have been the IID  
HQ. The woman walked a block, the camera following her invisibly at a steady  
distance. Then suddenly the image flickered in a burst of static.  
  
Subtitles flashed onto the screen, reading "RF INTERFERENCE HIGH".  
  
The image flickered into snow again, and the subtitles appeared again.  
"RF INTERFERENCE HIGH".  
  
Static obscured the image on the screen again, until it abruptly cleared  
up. Instead of Sasami, what appeared was a large cartoon crab waving its  
claws at the camera in a friendly greeting.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You'd better do some real research, sister", said Washuu. "I'm running  
out of gadgets." She pointed to a cartoon crab on her monitor. "And sooner  
or later they're going to getting nasty. They're not going to watch videos  
forever."  
  
"Oh, I have", replied Sasami. "I found out something else: the whole thing  
is run by a group called SEELE. But that's as far as we're going to get.  
It's a cabal. They don't need to leave lots of traces around when they plan  
in secret--the only way we're going to find out anything more is to break in.  
But I have one more idea. If it works, I'll come out of there knowing exactly  
what they're doing." She leaned to Washuu's ear and began to whisper  
something.  
  
Washuu shook Sasami's hand and returned to her control panel. "Seems  
perfectly logical. It might even work. Will you be done before making dinner  
next week?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Sasami prepared carefully. In her pocketbook was a letter to Kaji, another  
one to Misato, a personal diary, and a few other special items. Hopefully they  
would be as convincing as they were fake. And, she thought, I'm sorry, Misato.  
I don't think I'm going to be introducing you to Akuma's mother next week.  
  
She took the noonday train to the nearest stop to Tokyo-3 and walked into  
the complex. "Hello", said a guard in blue. "I'm sorry, but I'll need to see  
your identification."  
  
"I don't have one. I need to get a pass. I'm here to visit my nephew. He  
goes to school here."  
  
"That's the wrong way for passes. Security is very tight here", said the  
guard apologetically. "We had a problem with terrorist threats." That was  
the standard line he fed anyone who wondered just why there were so many guards  
around. "Come this way, Miss."  
  
The guard led her to a small booth where another guard yawned as he  
watched rows upon rows of video monitors. "We have a visitor. She needs a  
level 1", said the first guard.  
  
"Okay, sign here", replied the sitting guard, shoving a pencilboard to  
Sasami. She signed her name and the guard handed her a green-colored badge.  
"Take that onto the shuttle", he said. "And don't try to get off at the wrong  
spot." The guard primped. "We do take our security seriously around here."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Sasami exited the shuttle at the school area. Tokyo-3 itself loomed on the  
horizon, about two miles away. The safest way to get there was simple: walk.  
Hardly anybody ever walked two miles when there was a shuttle available,  
guaranteeing that the path would be nearly deserted except for a few random  
personnel. She replaced her green badge with the one from her pocketbook,  
which was a faked-up copy of Kaji's with her own picture glued in. It would  
keep passersby from noticing anything odd, and it would even pass a computer  
scan, as long as nobody noticed that the encoded data didn't match the name  
and picture.  
  
Her skeleton key--produced by the Internal Investigation Department--worked  
wonders on many of the doors deep in the complex. The badge, fed into the  
readers on the more special doors, took care of the rest.  
  
Sasami searched through several empty offices, but finally hit paydirt.  
Someone had left a computer terminal running. Sasami looked up what  
information she could and continued onwards, committing it to memory as much as  
possible. No doubt that would set off an alarm if she hadn't set off at least  
one already; it would alert the guards. She had to avoid spend too much time in  
one place, staying ahead of them for as long as possible.  
  
She searched deeper and deeper within the complex, her route leading her  
by a door festooned with warnings of danger in the "LCL Plant". She knew what  
really lay beyond, from Kaji's pictures and her own research: Lilith.  
  
Shunning the door in favor of continuing her search for information, Sasami  
came to another room, deep beneath the complex. The card opened the unmarked  
door. Revealed was a room filled with a low intensity humming and a huge tank.  
And within the tank floated dozens of albino female bodies. As Sasami glanced  
at them, one opened its eyes and tried to focus very near her. Sasami let out  
a small gasp at the sight, then looked away.  
  
Replacement bodies, thought Sasami. No doubt for the girl that Akuma had  
described, because the description fit her exactly. That must be why he  
thought she was so strange; she must be an experiment of some kind. And the  
bodies... it must not be possible to kill the girl just by killing the body  
that was out there walking, because that wasn't all of her. They would just  
awaken another one.  
  
On the other side of the room was a closet and some papers. Sasami  
searched through the papers, knowing that that was her best chance.  
  
Over an hour of reading afterwards, Sasami knew that she had hit the  
jackpot. The papers explained what the bodies were for, and just what NERV,  
and probably SEELE, was intending to do to the world. Washuu's worst-case  
scenario was true. Sasami imagined everyone and every living thing dissolving  
into orange sludge like the pool in Lilith's room, all in the name of human  
betterment, and she shuddered a bit. Not even Tokimi would have had the  
audacity to do something like that.  
  
The door slid open again. "Looks like you've been giving us a merry  
chase", said a man with greying hair who wore a black suit. A pistol was  
already in his hand, cocked.  
  
"Would you mind explaining to me what this is all about?" asked Sasami.  
  
"If there's anything you wanted to know that wasn't in your choice of  
reading material", the man said, "here's your answer. No, I'm not going to  
explain." He fired the pistol at Sasami, tearing a hole through her uniform  
and exposing her bulletproof vest as Sasami kicked away his weapon and tried  
to run past him.  
  
Another old man walked up to the doorway and emptied six shots into  
Sasami's head, shattering her skull and splattering the room with blood and  
gore. She fell down and twitched, then lay still.  
  
END CHAPTER 3.  



	4. Wings of the Angel

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 4  
Wings of the Angel  
  
Shinji concentrated on the street ahead of him, trying to forget everything  
else as he walked to school. There were too many bad things in his life that  
he couldn't control, and it had been that way for a very long time. His father  
only cared about his work and his dead wife, never noticing he had a living son  
except when Shinji was needed to help save the city, and sometimes not even  
then. Of the other pilots, one hated him, one was halfway to catatonic, and  
the last one lost his machine and almost his life until Shinji, of all people,  
had to save him.  
  
At least Akuma was grateful to him for that. Shinji couldn't even remember  
the last time anyone had been grateful to him.  
  
"Hey, Shinji", said Akuma, as he joined Shinji on the last two blocks to  
school. "What's up?"  
  
"Oh, nothing", replied Shinji. "Just thinking."  
  
"Fighting Angels?"  
  
"No. I mean here. Existing. How do I fit in here?" Shinji had to talk  
to someone. The past few weeks had been good, meaning that there was no  
further trauma in his life, but not that the constant pain in his heart ever  
ended. "Akuma, suppose I were to die in the Eva tomorrow. Would anyone really  
care? Dad wouldn't notice except when an Angel's attacking right at the  
moment. Asuka wouldn't miss me if I disappeared, and Rei wouldn't know how to  
miss anybody. The class and even Misato were here before me, and they'll be  
here after me."  
  
Akuma blinked. "You know, if you keep talking like that you're going to  
convince yourself that you feel terrible no matter how good things really are."  
  
Akuma tried, thought Shinji. At least he tried, which was more than could  
be said for almost anyone else. But there was no way he could understand, not  
really. He had parents, he had friends, he had a home, and piloting Eva was  
only a sideline that he'd probably already forgotten about. Shinji shook his  
head in rejection of Akuma's words. "I'm sorry", he said. "I should be  
grateful that you're being kind to me."  
  
"Shinji", said Akuma as the two entered school, "if you keep this up you're  
going to turn into Rei."  
  
* * * * *  
  
A half hour before the end of the school day, a shrill note pierced the air.  
Over the classroom loudspeakers the principal announced the cause. "Angel  
attack. I repeat, Angel attack. Students Ikari, Ayanami, and Sohryu are to  
report to NERV immediately for defense. Everyone else, evacuate to shelters  
immediately!"  
  
Asuka got up and walked by the desk of Shinji, who was still jotting down  
English test answers in his blue book. "Idiot Shinji. We have to go."  
  
"I know", replied Shinji. "Just a minute."  
  
"We have to go now", repeated Asuka.  
  
Shinji looked over Asuka's shoulder and watched as Rei stood and walked out  
of the classroom. Asuka looked Rei's way and scowled, and then Shinji felt a  
sharp pain in his wrist as Asuka gripped it hard and pulled him away from his  
seat, running out of the room with him in tow.  
  
"See you later", said Kensuke, waving to the departing pilots as he and the  
rest of the class got up to leave behind them. "Good luck, everyone."  
  
"Get the Angel for us", yelled Akuma to Asuka and Shinji.  
  
Touji stared at the couple for one long moment. "Come back alive", he  
finally said.  
  
"Touji?" asked Akuma.  
  
"I mean it", replied the teen. "You know what I think about the Evas. It  
looks like a lot of fun. It might be a lot of fun. But I'd never want to do  
it. People get hurt. My sister's in the hospital because of an Angel. The  
same thing could happen to Shinji and the others."  
  
"I'm sure they'll be okay", replied Akuma. "They came back before, right?  
Isn't there some way we could watch them, make sure everything is all right?"  
  
"Me and Kensuke tried that. Shinji had to rescue us! I'm not gonna do  
that again. We should just go to the shelters."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Rei, Asuka, and Shinji filed into the holding area for the Evangelion  
units. The vastness of the place never ceased to amaze Shinji. It could even   
distract him from his troubles at times.  
  
Shinji picked up his plugsuit and pulled himself into it. He knew the  
routine, because he had gone through it so many times before. He was ordered  
to put on the suit, so he would put on the suit. He was ordered to climb in  
that machine, and he would enter the entry plug using his own hands and feet.  
And then, the mechanical monster's hands and feet would become his own, and he  
would fight, until the enemy died. And in a week or two when the next Angel  
came, he would go through it all over again.  
  
What were the Angels, anyway, wondered Shinji as the LCL filled his lungs.  
Aliens from space? An experiment gone wild? The vengeance of God, who hated  
his children like some heavenly Gendou?  
  
"87 percent", said Misato over the radio. "Sync ratio satisfactory.  
Everyone, the Angel's too close for comfort. Its form is like the earlier  
Angels, but its power levels are much higher. It broke through eighteen  
plates and it could be completely inside the Geofront very soon. You have to  
stop this one. There'll be no second chance!"  
  
"We'll defeat it anyway!" exclaimed Asuka as the Evas were transported to  
the outside.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Let's see if this works", said Akuma to Touji and Kensuke. He slid his  
card into a door slot, and the entranceway to the deeper levels of NERV opened  
before him. "I knew it. Their computers still think I'm a pilot. My card  
works!"  
  
Someone tapped Akuma on the shoulder. He turned, to discover that everyone  
had entered right in front of Ritsuko, who looked at them nonchalantly. "Oh  
no", he said. Touji and Kensuke, seeing her, backed him up on that. "Oh no!"  
they exclaimed.  
  
"Sounds like you kids are trying to get somewhere you don't think you're  
allowed to go", said Ritsuko.  
  
"It's okay", replied Akuma. "We just want to go watch Shinji fight. Don't  
you have some kind of monitors in here?"  
  
"Yeah", said Touji. "So we can see what's happening without there being  
any danger."  
  
"Hmm", said Ritsuko. "Follow me."  
  
She led them down several corridors, a few paths around open spaces, and a  
very long escalator, finally coming to what Akuma recognized as the control  
center. "We have some guests, Misato", she said. "They want to see the  
display."  
  
Misato scowled at them. "In there", she said, pointing to a room  
separated from the control center by a plexiglass wall. It did have a  
television monitor in it, and it was showing the Angel attack.  
  
"See? It worked", said Akuma as he and the other boys sat down to watch  
the battle. "We're not going to learn any secrets by being here that Shinji or  
the others couldn't learn and tell us about anyway. So they have no reason not  
to let us in."  
  
"Then", contemplated Kensuke, "maybe we should have asked ahead of time  
instead of sneaking in?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
The Angel hovered in the air, slowly but inexorably moving towards the  
center. Three Evangelion units landed in front of it, to stop it, or be  
destroyed trying.  
  
"First", said Misato, "Asuka. Shoot from long-range with a sniper attack."  
  
"Roger", replied Asuka, pulling out her Eva's weapon with bravado and  
firing it at the angel. "I've got it!"  
  
Meanwhile, Akuma, Touji, and Kensuke watched the shot on the screen. It  
zoomed out and hit the faraway Angel dead center, but the Angel shrugged off  
the blast just like it had constantly been shrugging off ordinary cannons and  
missiles.  
  
Asuka pulled out her Eva's other gun and let loose with both barrels on the  
slowly approaching Angel. "You're dead meat!" she yelled.  
  
The shots hit, but showed no more effect than the first ones. The Angel  
kept coming. "It's not working!" yelled Misato. "The AT Field hasn't been  
neutralized! Okay, all three of you. Put your units between the Angel and  
the center of the Geofront. You're going to have to draw its attention and  
fight it close-up."  
  
The teens watching the monitor yelled at the screen, but of course nobody  
noticed them.  
  
"It'll be necessary to breach a hole in the Angel's AT Field. Asuka and  
Rei, you do that. We need both of you because of the strength of this Angel.  
Then you, Shinji, will attack it."  
  
On the screen, the Angel loomed larger and larger, floating directly  
towards the three Evangelion units. At first, it seemed not to notice them,  
as if the Evas were just one more group of missile launchers. But at several  
Angel-heights away, it landed and swiveled towards the Evas. The Angel  
suddenly lashed out at the Evas, its AT field extending to swat them out of its  
way.  
  
"Asuka! Rei! Now!" shouted Misato.  
  
The two girls in their Evas fought, trying to pull apart the AT Field of  
the Angel. Massive armored hands the size of trucks struggled with the Angel,  
but the field barely even rippled. The Angel flexed its arms, and threw the  
two attackers off, then sped up, heading for the center again.  
  
"What do I do?" asked Shinji. "It's still coming!"  
  
"Dammit!" yelled Misato. "Go back. We're going to have to try something  
else. All three of you will have to try to breach the field. Once that  
happens, then Shinji, you're to stop, grab the knife, and stab in fast before  
it closes again. Does everybody understand?"  
  
"Yes", replied Shinji.  
  
"Back off, now!" yelled Misato.  
  
Obeying Misato's order, Shinji and the others backed their Evas away from  
the Angel. No sooner had they backed off, though, when the Angel's arms shot  
out two thin ribbons. They were only a yard thick, but the Angel controlled  
them easily. The Angel cracked the ribbons at the Evangelion units, ignoring  
everything else in their path; they sliced through a pole, the edge of a  
skyscraper, and finally, through the torso of Asuka's Eva.  
  
"Cut the neural connections on Unit 02, now!" screamed Misato as Asuka's  
Eva fell, useless. It bled a puddle of what would have been gore had it not  
been too purple and had it not been the size of several swimming pools.  
  
"Pilot signs?" yelled Misato.  
  
"Attack missed the Entry Plug", replied Ritsuko. "The Eva's out of  
commission but Asuka's alive."  
  
The Angel swung around and picked a new target for its ribbons without even  
hesitating: Rei's Eva. Rei crossed her Eva's arms and warded them off on their  
first attack.  
  
But then, the Angel aimed a blast of energy at Rei, following up with  
another coil of ribbon. While she dodged the blast, the other attack hit her.  
The Angel squeezed hard, crushing the Eva, then reeled in its arms and  
tore it in two. The Eva broke, splattering purple gore for blocks. Rei  
screamed, until the audio shorted out.  
  
Please, let Rei have made it too, wished Misato. "Life signs of Ayanami  
Rei?"  
  
"Not reading anything", replied Ritsuko. "It could just be the detection  
system that's destroyed, though."  
  
But the screen showed otherwise. The entry plug on Unit 00 had been  
breached. Lying in the wreckage was the twisted body of Ayanami Rei, who had  
suffered a ten story fall as well as having several tons of equipment fall on  
the right side of her body, unprotected.  
  
Touji and Kensuke watched in horror. "Shinji's not going to make it  
either", said Touji. "And then it's going to destroy this whole place.  
Shelters, my sister, NERV, us...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma watched besides them. He thought it over and realized that there was  
only one chance. As horrific as the situation appeared to his friends, its  
true nature was something they were mercifully ignorant of. If that Angel got  
all the way to the core, not just NERV, but the whole world, would be instantly  
destroyed as everyone dissolved into pools of LCL. He would have to hope that  
the secrecy which kept the Evas and Angels out of the public eye would serve as  
well for what he was about to do.  
  
And of course, if he didn't survive, he'd never know whether that happened  
anyway.  
  
"Guys", said Akuma. "Wish me luck. Watch the screen. And if I make it  
through this, please wait for the explanation, okay?"  
  
"You can't go out there!" yelled Touji. "They don't have any spare Evas."  
  
Akuma shook his head. He stepped up... up onto nothingness, so he was  
floating in the air, and disappeared.  
  
"That's... he can't do that. No way!" exclaimed Touji.  
  
Kensuke pointed to the screen. "There's something there. We've got to  
watch. There's nothing else we can do."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma blinked momentarily as he reappeared in the bright sunlight, right  
above the battle. He hovered in front of the Angel, immaterial for safety, and  
summoned the Light Hawk Wings. Four spokes of energy appeared on his back, and  
merged together into a powerful energy shield. Energy flowed from his hands  
and became a long crackling blade, perfectly weightless. Then the blade  
lengthened and lengthened. Touji could see it on the viewscreen, that energy  
blade from one tiny figure expanding so much that it broke the boundaries of  
scale and became a credible threat to the invading Angel.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Second blue pattern detected", said Maya. "Second AT Field detected."  
  
"Another Angel?" asked Misato.  
  
"There's nothing else it could be", replied Maya. "We can get a  
closeup...."  
  
Misato expectantly watched the closeup. Somewhere inside her she knew what  
it would be; Sasami hadn't been completely convincing. When she saw Akuma  
floating in the air in the middle of the battle, and then when she glanced at  
the room with the children to see that he was, of course, gone, she realized  
that her guess had been right. Sasami was mixed up in something big. Maybe it  
was another government agency, one even more secret than NERV. Or an  
extragovernmental agency. But whatever it was, they had the Fifteenth Angel,  
and they sent him here. To come in, to learn about NERV... ultimately, to act.  
And whatever NERV could do, might no longer have any effect....  
  
* * * * *  
  
Gendou unfolded and folded his hands. So those old men at SEELE got  
something right for a change, he thought. But they hadn't intended anything  
like this. What was that Angel doing? And how would Gendou's own plans for  
Instrumentality be disrupted?  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma fought hard, holding the huge Light Hawk sword against the Angel's  
field. He didn't have to slice with it; he just had to move it with his mind,  
just as he had created it. All that power came from within him, not from the  
motion of his hands. The Light Hawk sword temporarily broke up as it hit the  
field, and Akuma instinctively teleported behind the Angel to avoid an oncoming  
blow.  
  
The Angel turned and shot its ribbon arms in Akuma's direction with precise  
aim. The protrubances hit Akuma's Light Hawk Shield and bounced off. He could  
feel the feedback, but he was safe.  
  
He would have to be safe. There were pretty much two possibilities.  
Either the attacks would bounce off, and he'd be unhurt, or else they'd  
penetrate. That AT Field, if it was as much like the Light Hawk Wings as it  
seemed to be, could hurt him while he was immaterial, and he'd be very rapidly  
dead if he didn't react fast enough.  
  
Akuma created the blade again, forcing it with his mind and a turn of his  
hands to help him visualize. It was smoothly melded into his shield, as if he  
was a giant swordfish. Akuma accelerated in the air towards the Angel, trying  
to ram the 'blade' deep into the Angel's AT field.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"He's what?" asked Shinji, in disbelief.  
  
"An Angel. Akuma's an Angel", replied Misato. "He suddenly appeared in  
the middle of the battle, generating an AT Field."  
  
"He can't be! I spoke to him, he wanted to be my friend. He can't be one  
of those things I have to kill! He can't be! Can't, can't...."  
  
"Shinji! Pull yourself together. He's fighting the Fourteenth Angel and  
that might do us some good for now. You need to get through the AT Field and  
destroy the core. With a distraction like this, it may be possible."  
  
"But..."  
  
"Asuka and Rei are down. You're our only hope! Do it!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji drew his knife and attacked the Eva, trying to get through its AT  
Field on its back. The field flared and didn't let Shinji through. But  
elsewhere, Akuma's Light Hawk sword, concentrated in a different location,  
slowly ate through the Fourteenth Angel's AT field as the Angel expended its  
resources on Shinji. It formed a tiny hole... tiny on the scale of an  
Angel, but huge for a boy.  
  
Akuma flew through before it could close up and released all his power at  
the Angel, behind its AT Field. He could have destroyed several football  
fields with that blast, and it tore through the Angel like Ryo-oh-ki through a  
hill of carrots. What was left of the Angel fell to the ground, unmoving and  
silent.  
  
Shinji's Eva, the only remaining Eva, turned to face Akuma. It took two  
steps, then one more, then stopped. The expression on the Eva's face, to the  
extent that that metal-covered face could mirror that of the pilot within, was  
one of shock and confusion.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma had saved the world. But what he wanted to do the most now was to go  
far, far, away. Because now would come the hard part. His great-grandfather  
had kept everything secret for over seven hundred years, but in just a few  
minutes, Akuma had undone it all. How could he make up for something like  
this?  
  
And how could he explain it to his classmates?  
  
Akuma disappeared and reappeared back in the monitor room. Touji jumped,  
startled. "H-- hello", stammered Touji.  
  
There was no mistaking the expression on his and Kensuke's faces. They  
were frightened to death. "Touji, Kensuke, I..." he said, and bit his tongue  
when they nearly jumped at the sound of his voice.  
  
"Oh God, no wonder you were so strong. You were really one of them", said  
Touji. The bravado so often in his voice was replaced by timidity. "An  
Angel... a monster... please don't hurt us."  
  
"Will you stop that, please? I'm not going to hurt you. And I'm not an  
Angel."  
  
Misato opened the door cautiously. "Akuma?" she asked carefully.  
  
"Misato? Did you tell them that I'm an Angel?" Misato nodded uncertainly.  
"Well, I'm not. I was going to explain everything, but I really don't know  
what I'm allowed to say even after all of this has happened. But I didn't  
come here to kill everyone. I came here to go to school! Please, tell  
them...."  
  
Misato looked at Akuma and shook her head, then at the other children.  
"Touji... Kensuke... he hasn't hurt anyone so far. You can't lose hope."  
  
* * * * *  
  
It was overwhelming. Shinji didn't think his world could be overturned  
again, after all he'd been through, but it was. That boy was an Angel. 'I  
hope we can be friends....' All lies. He'd only been using Shinji, as one  
step towards... what?   
  
As the entry plug opened and let Shinji out, he looked around. Touji and  
Kensuke? What were they doing here? And Akuma... how did he get to be in  
here too? "Misato?"  
  
"Right here."  
  
"What's going on? What happened? And where's Asuka and Rei?"  
  
"Your friends came to watch", she said, motioning towards Touji and  
Kensuke. "Asuka should be all right, she just had a mild concussion when her  
Eva fell. The LCL cushioned her from most of the impact. Rei... we don't  
know."  
  
"I see. And Akuma?"  
  
"Shinji!" said Akuma. "You're back...."  
  
Shinji looked at Akuma, saying nothing. What could he say? The boy was  
strange, alien, despite any surface appearances.  
  
"Shinji? Not you too. I helped you! You should know, you were out  
there."  
  
"Why...?"  
  
"Shinji, what would you have me do, sit back in here and let the world be  
destroyed?" When Akuma said that, Shinji caught Misato giving him a curious  
glance.  
  
Shinji began to speak. "Tokyo-3 is hardly the wor--", he said.  
  
"Akuma's right", said Misato. "Nobody ever told you, Shinji, but what you  
are fighting for, Shinji... really is that important."  
  
Of course. Misato had hidden the truth. Maybe she thought he couldn't  
handle it. But, Shinji realized, she was still right about that one part.  
Akuma did help him. Shinji barely understood anyone helping him, let alone an  
Angel doing so, but he had no choice but to be grateful. "Thank you, Akuma",  
he said, "for the rescue."   
  
"Umm... you're welcome", replied Akuma. "Shinji, you can stop being  
scared. It's as bad as being depressed. If there's anyone here who has to be  
scared, it's me. I blew a secret big-time, and now I have to go home and tell  
my parents and my family what I just did."  
  
"Your family?" asked Shinji. "You really do have a family?" Of course he  
couldn't; an Angel couldn't possibly. "That wasn't just..."  
  
"I'm not an Angel, Shinji. It doesn't matter what all those machines out  
there think. I know exactly who I am and why I have these powers, and it has  
nothing to do with NERV or Angels or anything like that."  
  
"Then what?" asked Misato. "And what's your connection with Sasami?"  
  
Akuma shook his head. "Misato, I already blew it. Don't ask me to make it  
worse by giving you information. Please? Now I have to go."  
  
Shinji eyed him, and finally asked "Will I... will we... ever see you  
again?"  
  
"No! I mean no you're wrong! I'm not leaving. I hope not. I don't know  
what Mom and Dad are going to tell me to do but I'm going to be back tomorrow  
for school if I can. We still have that English test to finish...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma teleported to near the Tokyo-2 West Metropolitan Underground Shopping  
Center and walked in. There was a place here which had some good ice cream,  
for a mall. At least it was something to do before he had to go home.  
  
Halfway past the Kinokuniya, he stopped. He was just kidding himself, he  
knew. All that waiting was doing was making him more and more nervous for when  
he finally did have to tell his parents. They would be very disappointed in  
him. Seven hundred years. His great-grandfather had been keeping the secret  
going longer than most Earth countries existed, and in just a few minutes Akuma  
wrecked all that completely.  
  
Akuma walked back towards the exit, then realized he was still trying to  
stall. No, he still did have time to get the ice cream. Green tea, he liked  
green tea.  
  
After walking most of the way towards the store again, Akuma shook his  
head, gritted his teeth, and entered a fire exit for protection against the  
wandering eyes of mall shoppers. Once he knew he was safe, he teleported  
directly onto the couch in the Masaki living room. He was home.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma waited and waited. A scraping sound startled him. Maybe Mom and Dad  
had come home already? He looked over to the source of the sound and it was  
only Ryo-ohki eating.  
  
The doorbell rang. "Hi!" he yelled at whoever it was.  
  
Akuma's father unlocked and opened the door, then stuck his head  
through--unlike his mother, who would often have done the reverse--and waved.  
"Hi Akuma", he said. "I didn't expect to see you here."  
  
Ryouko disappeared and instantly appeared in front of him. "C'mon, give me  
a hug."  
  
Akuma obeyed, but a little reluctantly. Ryouko teleported back to Tenchi.  
"All right, what happened?" she asked.  
  
"What do you mean 'what happened', Mom?"  
  
"You're no good at faking it, Akuma. You're sitting down fidgeting and  
upset about something, that you're not having any fun at all trying to tell me  
about. What happened, Akuma-chan?"  
  
"I didn't have any choice! Mom, Dad, you want to know what happened. This  
is what happened. I had to save the world and to save the world I had to use  
the Light Hawk Wings. With everyone watching. Please don't get mad at me and  
don't make us all have to go away forever because of it. They can keep  
secrets at NERV, they really can."  
  
"I think all three of us had better talk", said Tenchi. "I want you to  
tell us everything, all the way from the start."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"So that's it", said Tenchi after Akuma finished his explanation. "You  
know, you should really be pretty proud. You saved the world. You wanted to  
do that at NERV, right?"  
  
"I saved the world in a bad way."  
  
"Akuma", said Ryouko, "do you remember when you told me how your friend  
Shinji is always depressed?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Try to set a good example for him, okay?"  
  
Akuma looked at his mother expectantly, waiting for her to continue. When  
she didn't, he asked her "That's it?"  
  
"What's it, dear?"  
  
"You're not going to get mad at me or ground me?"  
  
"Akuma, I made plenty of mistakes in my time. You know I burned down a  
school once by accident? And what you did wasn't even a mistake. What else  
could you have done?" She paused and looked at Tenchi, giving him a chance to  
speak just in case he disagreed, but she knew that he almost certainly  
wouldn't. Tenchi nodded to her and she nodded back, then continued talking to  
their son. "Don't get me wrong. It did happen, and we're going to have to  
worry about it. But not the way you're worrying."  
  
"Will we have to leave and go into space?"  
  
"Akuma, no, we're not. Even if we get on the front page of every newspaper  
from here to Slovakia. You're going to stay in school and you're going to stay  
here with your friends. You deserve to have as normal a childhood as we can  
give you, and Tenchi and I are going to do everything we can to see that you get  
one."  
  
* * * * *  
  
A voice behind the number "07" spoke. "The Seventeenth Angel is awake.  
Sasami is dead, but her allies will need heavy watching. There are still two  
more Angels to arrive before we can send him to Lilith and attain  
Instrumentality. And the Dummy Plug System for the Eva Series cannot yet be  
completed."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Well, that had certainly jolted the old men of SEELE to activity, thought  
Gendou. Not that it mattered, since the Angels put them on a timetable that  
they couldn't rush. Anyway, there was one thing he had to do as soon as  
possible.  
  
Deep inside the Geofront, Gendou reverently laid out a blanket atop a cart,  
and wheeled it into the room hidden within the complex, the room full of parts  
of Rei. Remembrances of Yui. Gendou normally just gave orders that others  
followed, but in this case, he would operate all the machinery himself. Few  
other people really understood the concept, and besides, Yui deserved to have  
it done with his own hands.  
  
Gendou climbed to the top of the tank and cranked it open. Then he fished  
out the nearest body by reaching down into the fluid and grabbing it under the  
armpits. He put a harness around the pale girlish form; he maneuvered it onto  
a crane. Then Gendou worked with the crane controls, gently placing the body  
down on the blanket he had prepared.  
  
He gave the seemingly sleeping Rei body one kiss on the lips, then wheeled  
the cart out. To Lilith. To the room where the sleeping giant hung, dripping  
an endless supply of LCL. Gendou lifted the body off the cart and set it down  
in the LCL, right inside the door where the fluid layer was shallow but still  
provided a direct psychic connection to Lilith's cross, and to Lilith itself.  
  
Eight years ago, Ritsuko's mother had strangled the first Rei. Eight years  
ago, Gendou had had to awaken this substitute Yui for a second time. It had  
taken ten minutes then, but it seemed like hours. Now, he had to do it again,  
and in the silence, he waited.  
  
Ten minutes later, there were no signs of activity from the body he had  
brought. A half hour later, there was still nothing, and when two hours had  
passed, Gendou brought the body out of the room and back to the tank with the  
others. Could something have gone wrong? He had seen the body; it was dead.  
Could eight years have been too long? Could the soul have been stuck in that  
body and have vanished with Rei's death?  
  
* * * * *  
  
Rei awoke in a weightless space. She must have been floating in LCL, but  
her skin felt perfectly dry and everything was completely still, as if no  
liquid was around her at all. A nearby voice called out her name.  
  
Rei opened her eyes, to see only emptiness except for a fleeting glimpse of  
leaves. Floating in the void in front of her was a woman dressed in robelike  
clothes she had never seen the likes of before. On the woman's forehead was a  
triangle, seemingly molded into her skin.  
  
"Welcome back, Ayanami Rei", said the woman's soft voice.  
  
END CHAPTER 4.  



	5. Spy vs. Spy

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 5  
Spy vs. Spy  
  
The last that Rei could remember was the pain. Unit 00 was cut, and she  
felt the wounds. Unit 00's skeleton was broken, and she felt it as if it had  
been her own bones tearing through her own skin. And finally, Unit 00 had  
died, but she didn't need to feel it, because in the process the Fourteenth  
Angel had crushed the entry plug around her and she had followed it along to  
its doom.  
  
After that, Rei had awoken in a void. She itched all over, but the pain  
was gone. She was floating, but there was no LCL around her, only a glowing  
haze. Rei opened her eyes to see a strange woman floating with her. "Welcome  
back, Ayanami Rei", the woman said with a small smile.  
  
"Who are you?" asked Rei.  
  
"I'm Sasami. It's nice to meet you."  
  
Rei looked at her.  
  
"I'm Sasami", she repeated. "I rescued you, Ayanami Rei."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because when I learned about you I remembered a girl from twenty years  
ago. A girl with blue hair and red eyes, a girl who was always polite and  
always did what was expected of her while hiding inside herself a secret which  
she feared very much. Do you want me to go on, Rei?"  
  
It was clear to Rei that this woman did want to tell her something, so Rei  
gave the answer that the woman expected. Whether Rei herself really cared  
about what it was was purely secondary. "Yes", she replied.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Against the world, Shinji was helpless. The biggest thing he could do was  
to finish his homework and study for his tests, while the biggest thing that  
the world could throw at him was life and death and destruction and disaster.  
Two of his classmates were gone... Rei was probably dead, and Akuma was never  
really one of his classmates to begin with. Shinji stood at the open door,  
looking out and wishing that he didn't have to go to school, but knowing that  
he had no choice but to face the new, twisted, future that awaited him.  
  
"Idiot Shinji", yelled Asuka. "Don't just stand there." Asuka shoved  
Shinji aside and left the apartment. She stopped, turned, faced him, and  
lectured him. "If you don't go to school, Idiot Shinji, you won't be able to  
be a pilot any more and then the Angels are going to come and we're all going  
to die. So get going, got it?"  
  
"Wait, Asuka!" he yelled. Shinji sighed and walked out, towards school.  
He could still run to catch up with Asuka, but there really wasn't much point  
to that; instead, he slowed his pace, until Asuka disappeared into the distance  
and let him be alone in his sorrows for a time.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"The best way to start", said Sasami, "is to ask a question. Who are you?"  
  
"Ayanami Rei", replied Rei.  
  
"Why are you Ayanami Rei?" asked Sasami.  
  
"Because others call me Ayanami Rei."  
  
"You are formed by interaction with others", said Sasami. "The  
interaction with people and the flow of time change the shape of your mind.  
They've formed you so far, and they will form you from now on. But, there's  
someone else who is the true you."  
  
"I am me", replied Rei. The idea that Sasami was driving at floated to the  
top of Rei's mind, but Rei pushed it away. Somehow, Sasami sensed her  
reticence.  
  
"You don't know her", said Sasami. "Because you don't want to see that,  
you are trying to run away. Because of fear."  
  
"Fear?" asked Rei, knowing, but not wanting to know.  
  
"Because she might not have a human shape. Because the current you might  
disappear. You fear that your self disappears."  
  
"Fear?" replied Rei. No, I don't fear. I wish to die. I do as I am told  
and then I will return to nothingness again."  
  
"You don't need to, Rei", said Sasami. "That is fear, and despair, and  
you don't need those, not for that."  
  
"I don't need to fear?"  
  
"The girl I told you about, the one with the blue hair and red eyes, had  
fear too. She thought that she was a construct. She and another being, who  
wasn't human, were one, and she feared what was inside her because she thought  
that that meant that her mind and body were false."  
  
"What happened to her?" Sasami shook her head at that last word, and in  
this place, Sasami's mind was close enough that Rei knew what Sasami wanted  
her to ask instead. "What happened to you?" asked Rei.  
  
"Me..." She briefly pondered the thought, and explained. "I came to  
realize my nature. I am Sasami, and I am Tsunami. And neither is a false  
self, because both are part of me. I'm something older than humanity, living  
far away and only partly in this plane of existence, and at the same time I am  
a woman like others, living in the body you see before you."  
  
"Tsunami...?"  
  
"The name of my other self is Tsunami, just like the name of yours is  
Lilith. You are Lilith, a being that humans found, named, and built the  
Geofront around without ever really understanding, and at the same time you are  
Ayanami Rei, a human girl living in a human body."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Even after Shinji's slow starting pace, he managed to arrive at school a  
bit early. Not that it would make any difference; he could stand around at the  
apartment waiting for school to start, or he could stand around at the school  
waiting for exactly the same thing. Shinji spotted Asuka far away, arguing  
with a group of students as usual. How did Asuka ever get the energy she  
needed to do that?  
  
A boy walked behind Asuka and tapped her on the shoulder. Shinji saw Asuka  
turn to look at him, yell something from which he could only make out the word  
"Devilman", and then run away. The boy had black hair, a thin pony-tail....  
  
"Akuma?" said Shinji.  
  
He didn't reply. Of course, Akuma didn't hear him. Not even an Angel  
could hear him at this distance. But wait, that was silly. How could Shinji  
know what an Angel pretending to be human could do, anyway?  
  
He looked completely normal, thought Shinji as he approached. The shirt  
and pants of the uniform fit him perfectly, and his body language was so good  
that nobody would ever guess that humans to him were like penguins to mankind.  
  
"Shinji, come here", said Akuma, motioning to Shinji. Though Shinji had  
been approaching, at that sudden burst of attention, he stopped. "Shinji?"  
asked Akuma, hesitancy in his voice. "Come on. Touji and Kensuke are here, I  
couldn't get Asuka, don't you miss out too."  
  
"What do you _want_? What do I matter to you?"  
  
"I want to _explain_, Shinji. When was the last time someone told any of  
us what was really happening?"  
  
Never, thought Shinji, and if it started now, he'd be very surprised. But  
he had to at least give Akuma a chance. Shinji approached and faced the two  
boys and one putative Angel.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You brought me back to life", said Rei.  
  
"No", replied Sasami. "I rescued you. I healed you by regenerating your  
entire body. But I can't bring back the dead. You never were dead; you're  
still the same Ayanami Rei. Your body was destroyed, but your soul is that of  
a greater being who lost only a nonessential part. Once you had another body  
created for you, you could manifest through it again. And I insured the  
transition was gentle enough that your mind and your memories suffered no  
further injury."  
  
Rei nodded to Sasami, patiently listening to the explanation.  
  
"Only a day ago", continued Sasami, "I healed myself exactly the same way.  
I went into the NERV complex, to gather information, and I didn't expect to  
come out. They killed my human body, but I, Tsunami, was still alive, because  
what they killed was only a part of me."  
  
"Then what am I really? And you?"  
  
"I've been called a goddess, Rei, but that's a measure of power, not an  
indelible title. Then I decided to be a tree, and I was a tree. And now, I'm  
Sasami. As for you, what do you want to be?"  
  
"I'm... Ayanami Rei?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"A lot of my family is from outer space", whispered Akuma to Shinji and the  
others. "We came here from outside, but Earth is our home now."  
  
It was a crazy story to Shinji. But his whole life was a crazy story;  
one bit more was hardly going to make any difference.  
  
"Are you an Angel?" asked Touji.  
  
"I'm not, Touji. None of us are. We didn't even know about the Angels  
until I first came to NERV."  
  
"You have an AT field", said Shinji. "Just like the Angels."  
  
Akuma shook his head. "No, the Angels have fields, just like us. We don't  
call them AT fields, and they're very powerful, and very rare. A long time  
ago, a civilization called Neo-Atlantis tried to copy some of this power to  
change the human race. It didn't quite work as they expected."  
  
"You're confusing me", said Kensuke.  
  
Akuma shrugged. "I'm not a teacher. There are people who can explain it a  
lot better than me."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You'll be able to go back soon, Rei", said Sasami. "This glow around you  
is protection. You are nearly healed now, so soon you will be able to return."  
  
"You want something for this. Or you are just being kind?" wondered Rei.  
  
"I'm not that old man Gendou", said Sasami. "I don't want you to be a  
servant who knows nothing better. If there's something I want you to do, it's  
to think about what I've said and to realize you are not a thing. I thought I  
wasn't real for four years. I hid it... I acted the perfect child for years,  
because I wanted to be a good enough fake to be accepted as real. Don't do  
that to yourself, Rei. Believe in yourself."  
  
"Shinji should know that I am safe", said Rei.  
  
"You can tell him that, if you want to", said Sasami. "You know how to do  
it; I can see in your mind that you've done it before, without meaning to."  
  
* * * * *  
  
It was an explanation, at least as good an explanation as the obvious one.  
Was it, wondered Shinji, something he should believe?  
  
"Shinji, everyone... I didn't do anything to you. I *never* did anything  
to you. Can you trust me?"  
  
"I'll believe you, Akuma", said Kensuke. Shinji wondered just how sincere  
that statement was.  
  
Akuma glanced at the expression on Kensuke's face and shook his head.  
"Please... you're making me feel like a freak here."  
  
"No, I mean it!" exclaimed Kensuke.  
  
Touji nodded. "Me too. We're all scared, but all you really did was  
help."  
  
Shinji stared at Touji and Kensuke. "I...." he stammered.  
  
"C'mon", said Touji. "Shinji, we're all on the same side."  
  
"All right", responded Shinji. He was trapped anyway; if he said anything  
else, he'd look like an idiot. And who knows, maybe Akuma was telling the  
truth after all. It was a faint hope, but it was hope.  
  
"Whew..." mumbled Akuma to himself. "One thing", he said, "could you not  
tell anyone about any of this? It's going to have to be our secret... nobody  
else at school except Asuka and Rei even has any idea what happened yesterday."  
  
"Rei's all right?" asked Shinji.  
  
"She got hurt but she'll be..."  
  
"What?" asked Shinji.  
  
"What good timing", said Akuma, motioning to behind Shinji's left shoulder.  
  
Shinji turned to look. There, in front of him, was Rei in her school  
uniform. Her body was only a few inches from his, but he had seen and heard  
nothing of her approach.  
  
"You startled me", said Shinji, but Rei didn't reply. She spoke, moving  
her mouth slowly, as if getting out any words at all was a struggle. In a  
whisper, Shinji heard Rei say "I'm safe." And then, Rei disappeared.  
  
"She..." said Shinji in astonishment.  
  
Touji and Kensuke were gaping. It was as if they were watching Akuma fight  
the Angel again. And even Akuma had a surprised look on his face. So they  
must have seen it, thought Shinji. He wasn't imagining it at all.  
  
"She disappeared..." continued Shinji. "And it's not just that! She...  
she did it once before."  
  
"What?" asked Touji.  
  
"When I just got here, weeks ago, I saw her. I looked away and I looked  
back and she was gone. She didn't have any time to run away, and she couldn't  
have really been there anyway... I found out she was in the hospital."  
  
"Spooky", said Touji. "Anyway, we'd better get into class."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma usually did pretty well at tests, but things had been pretty hectic  
and he didn't get much of a chance to study again for this one. So he was a  
bit relieved when he finished it and managed to fill in most of the answers.  
  
"Will student Masaki Akuma please report to Ribo Field?" blared a voice on  
the class loudspeakers. "Repeat, will Masaki Akuma report to Ribo Field?"  
  
Now what, wondered Akuma. But he'd better go; it wasn't as if he had much  
choice. Akuma got up, waved to his classmates, and exited the class. He  
walked all the way to the field, which was five blocks away; there was no way  
he could be sure teleporting was safe unless he twiddled his thumbs for long  
enough to make it seem like he walked. In which case, he may as well just  
walk.  
  
It was good that Akuma walked, because it kept him from being surprised.  
On the top of the hill were fifteen black slabs, a large number marking the  
front of each one. They were arranged in a circle with an empty folding chair  
in the middle. As he approached, one of them boomed out "Please join us."  
The pleasantry in the voice sounded fake, but then these things didn't exactly  
look as friendly as Azaka and Kamidake.  
  
"We have some information that we thought you might be interested in", came  
the voice from monolith 05.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"We are known as SEELE. We have been watching the Angels, all of the  
Angels. What you did yesterday to Zeruel verifies your status as the last."  
  
SEELE... that group that Sasami had warned everyone about. And they  
thought he was an Angel. Not surprising; after all, everyone else did. But  
it was one thing if Shinji thought he was an Angel and got a little scared; it  
was very different if a government, and worse yet a secret government of spies,  
thought it. Best to play along, thought Akuma, and then warn everybody.  
Again. "I'd like to hear your information", said Akuma.  
  
"Unification is our wish", boomed one of the voices, "as it is yours. You  
wish to unite with Adam, returning to your origin. And we, separate  
individuals of the human race, wish to unite all of ourselves into one. To  
open Pandora's box, but to find hope for humanity. With your unification will  
come our own."  
  
Akuma didn't understand. But he tried to remember what they had said, so  
he could repeat it later.  
  
"Adam", continued one of the monoliths, "is in the hands of a man who  
wishes to gain power equal to God's." Was Akuma imagining it, or did that cold  
voice chuckle? "We will lead you to Adam, if you lead us to our hope."  
  
That, decided Akuma, was another way in which those things weren't like the  
friendly logs at home. They spoke in riddles. "Could you be more specific?"  
  
"We'd require a blood sample and a brain scan."  
  
They what? Now what should he do, wondered Akuma. They couldn't  
physically hurt him... maybe. But they could cause a lot of trouble for him  
and his family, or even for the other students. Wishing for the luck of  
Mihoshi, Akuma gathered together his courage and said "I'm not going to give  
you one."  
  
If monoliths could become agitated, they didn't do so in any way that Akuma  
could notice, but they did pause for several long moments before speaking  
again. "Perhaps we may have another discussion later, then, to try to convince  
you otherwise?"  
  
"Sure", answered Akuma. He considered teleporting away, just to confuse  
these people more, but being a smart aleck to a group of robots who seemed  
that serious was about a good idea as entering his grandmother's lab without  
knocking. Instead, he walked back to class. Back to normality.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"It's time", said Sasami. "Back to Earth, Rei."  
  
Rei nodded in response.  
  
"Rei... don't look so glum."  
  
"What do I do?"  
  
"About what?" asked Sasami.  
  
"Life. Everything. I don't understand."  
  
"Life doesn't come with an instruction book, Rei", replied Sasami. "You  
have to learn how to handle it as you go along. Don't worry, it's that way for  
everyone."  
  
"I'm not like everyone", said Rei.  
  
"Neither am I", answered Sasami. "It doesn't make a difference."  
  
"Oh", said Rei. "Thank you for your help, Lady Sasami. And it was nice  
meeting you. Will I ever talk to you again?"  
  
"You're welcome. And yes, you can. Misato should know how to find me."  
Sasami waved a hand; the glow and the strange place disappeared, to be replaced  
by the school, which was not far away at all.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Lunch had already started by the time Akuma made it back to the  
classroom. He sat down again--right next to Asuka, who looked away from him  
and refused to say a word, even a greeting, during the rest of the day.  
  
When the final bell rang and everyone left, Akuma walked around the  
building and prepared to teleport once he was out of everyone's sight, only to  
stop when he saw Rei standing to the side. She waved slightly at him and said  
"Hello, Akuma".  
  
"Hello. Are you... are you feeling okay?"  
  
"I am fine", replied Rei.  
  
"Aunt Sasami helped heal you?"  
  
"Yes, she did."  
  
"That's good", answered Akuma.  
  
By then, Touji, Kensuke, and Shinji had started to gather around Akuma and  
Rei. Shinji even managed to crack a smile at Rei. "I'm glad you're all  
right", he said as the other two pestered Akuma and Rei with questions.  
  
* * * * *  
  
One man, however, had questions of a somewhat different sort. After the  
failure of his attempt to revive Rei, Ikari Gendou had given an order, for any  
information about Rei to be relayed to him. He didn't think it was too likely  
for anything to turn up, but he had to keep all possible avenues of  
investigation open as long as possible. Most likely, SEELE had finally played  
its hand, no longer having much need for Gendou's own personal version of the  
Third Impact.  
  
The phone rang. Gendou picked up the receiver and waited.  
  
"Ikari Gendou?" asked the voice.  
  
"This is he. You're...", he replied.  
  
"I'm janitor Taro. You told me to watch out for Rei, and you said I  
should report to you if I see her, sir. I saw Rei."  
  
"You saw Rei. How did you see Rei?"  
  
"She returned right after school, Mr. Ikari. I was sweeping near the  
grounds as you ordered and she walked right by me and waited at the entrance  
until all the students came out."  
  
"Thank you. Goodbye", said Gendou curtly. He hung the phone up. This, he  
realized, was something to think about. Rei II was dead. He had seen her  
lifeless, mangled, corpse with his own eyes. So SEELE was one step ahead of  
him. They had created bodies of their own--they certainly had the technology.  
Perhaps they were even working with that Angel-child, having him kill the Angel  
only after Rei died, just so that they could have another Rei who, remembering  
little, would be more pliant to their will.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"So what happened this morning?" asked Touji.  
  
"It was spies", answered Akuma.  
  
"Spies?"  
  
"Machine spies shaped like black tombstones! They think I'm an Angel. I  
didn't bother telling them anything different. They made me some kind of offer  
I didn't understand and they wanted to talk to me later. I'm going to have to  
go home and tell everyone what they said."  
  
"Oh", said Touji. "That's a little, well, unusual."  
  
"I believe him", said Rei.  
  
"You believe him?" asked Kensuke. While Rei sliently nodded in reply,  
Kensuke continued. "You know, you did some pretty strange stuff too. That was  
you, wasn't it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Are you working with him?"  
  
"Rei's not working with me", answered Akuma. "Would you guys lay off?" he  
said, exasperated. "I almost couldn't keep coming to school because of  
yesterday. And Rei was nearly killed." He must have raised his voice a bit  
too much, because Kensuke and Touji had each taken a step backwards.  
  
"We're sorry!" said Touji.  
  
Akuma shook his head. "Please. I don't want to lose all my friends here  
because of some stupid Angel attack."  
  
"We believe you", said Touji. "It's just... still hard to take. I can't  
just not be scared, you know?"  
  
"At least you're not like Asuka. She didn't even give me a chance."  
  
"I don't think Asuka likes you very much", said Shinji. If there was one  
thing Shinji could recognize and comprehend, it was senseless personal  
loathing.  
  
"I have to tell her", said Akuma. "She was in class today. She should  
still be around here somewhere, so I still have a chance." He looked around;  
the afterschool crowd had disappeared, but he spotted a distant redheaded girl  
looking at where he and his friends were standing. She took several steps away  
as he watched, then turned around to face him. "Hey, there she is!" he  
exclaimed.  
  
"Hey, Asuka!", yelled Touji. The girl noticed him, but refused to  
approach. Then she faced away again and slowly continued where she was going.  
  
"It's important!" shouted Akuma. Asuka turned briefly to look at him, then  
resumed her pace away, even speeding up, almost to a run. Wait a minute,  
thought Akuma. Nobody else was around, right? So catching up to her would be  
a cinch. He blinked out of existence, reappearing in front of Asuka.  
  
Asuka screamed in terror and fled.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misato sat at her table, alone except for the empty and recently-used beer  
cans in front of her. There was a knock on the door. "Come in!" she yelled.  
As she realized her mistake she added "Oh, wait." and got up to unlock the door.  
  
Asuka stormed in angrily and threw her books down. "It's not fair!" she  
exclaimed.  
  
"Calm down, calm down", said Misato. "What'sh not fair?"  
  
"My Eva's gone! And we have an Angel running around and going to school  
with us! There's nothing I can do except just sit and take it!"  
  
"Go and get shum resht", said Misato. "We *hic* both nee-- need it."  
  
"You're drunk! The one person who's back here to talk to and you're drunk!  
Everything's so wrong around here. I'm worthless now. Nothing to do but stay  
here and take classes that I pretty much know anyway. Do you even care? Of  
course not. Nobody cares." Asuka pointed to Misato's bedroom. "Go on, go lie  
down", she ordered. Misato did go to her bedroom a minute later, though  
perhaps it was coincidence.  
  
It really was unfair, though Asuka. A few days ago she was doing so well.  
Now her Eva was destroyed, her school was infiltrated by Angels, and since  
Wonder Girl had it almost as bad as her, the only person who could save the  
world was that kid Shinji. Dammit, Shinji had it so easy... he had a parent  
who was still alive, unlike her mother. That was probably why he was chosen  
to be a pilot to begin with--influence. It certainly wasn't his innate  
ability. Asuka sobbed; there was nothing left for her.  
  
The sound of a key in the door alerted Asuka to wipe the tears from her  
face. She really shouldn't be a whiner like Shinji, especially not in front of  
Shinji himself, who that probably was.  
  
Shinji opened the door. Along with Rei. And the Angel. "Hi, who invited  
Angels here?" yelled Asuka.  
  
"Let me get this straight", said Akuma. "I'm not an Angel. You're around  
the fifth or sixth person who thinks that, and I'm really getting tired of  
it. My family's from another planet. I've been _trying_ to tell you that all  
day."  
  
"Of course. Angels come from another planet, you come from another planet.  
So there."  
  
"You can't really believe I'm an Angel. If I was, wouldn't I be a little  
dangerous to talk to?"  
  
"It doesn't matter if you're an Angel or a Saiyajin. You came out of  
nowhere like Shinji--worse than Shinji. You used these superpowers on the  
Angel and you made the Evas obsolete, which hardly matters, since they're dead  
anyway. Why didn't you just stay away and let us do our business?"  
  
"Forget it", said Akuma. "Rei, do you want me to walk you home?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "I should be safe."  
  
"You can't leave now!" yelled Asuka as Akuma walked behind her, no doubt to  
head for the door. Realizing this, Asuka turned and ran ahead to stop him, but  
the boy was nowhere to be seen. "Wait! Where did Devilman go?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Rei's room was not so much living quarters, as it was the place where Rei  
was stored. Gendou unlocked the door and entered, not knocking; Rei was his,  
after all, and never complained anyway.  
  
She sat on the bed, staring into space with her red eyes, like usual. Or  
like usual, when she was alive. What had SEELE done? What did they have in  
mind for Rei? Would she still be of use to let Gendou achieve Instrumentality  
with Yui? "Hello", said Gendou, with a little bit of concern--not so much for  
Rei, but for what she represented. "How are you, Rei?"  
  
"I'm fine", replied Rei.  
  
"What happened to you?"  
  
"I was hurt, and then I was rescued."  
  
"By who?"  
  
"By a friend. Somebody you don't know."  
  
"Nobody that I don't know of is your friend, Rei. Who was it, and what did  
he want from you? Tell me."  
  
"No", answered Rei.  
  
Now how did SEELE do that? wondered Gendou. Even if they had grown another  
Rei body, there's no way they would be able to completely change her loyalty to  
be towards them. The best they could do would be to deliberately keep her  
amnesiac.  
  
"Rei, you have no reason to follow SEELE. Even if they did create you this  
time. Your purpose is still to be the key to bringing me and Yui together with  
all of mankind."  
  
"I wasn't rescued by SEELE. I was rescued by a friend. There's no need to  
worry about it. Old man."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Sasami, or Tsunami, floated in her pocket realm, staring at the image of a  
tree branch, that was part of her just as much as the Sasami everyone saw was.  
  
Tsunami, before, was content to have left the goddesses, to sleep on Jurai  
forever rejecting anything else. She had been, in fact, a lot like Ayanami Rei  
even before the merger. But when it came, and when at the start of the 21st  
century she finally accepted it from both the Sasami and Tsunami perspectives,  
she found a renewed interest in the world around her, no longer just the  
passivity of a tree. And an interest in family, though in one way all of Jurai  
was also her family.  
  
She stepped away, and then materialized out of a tree only a few dozen  
yards away from the Masaki house. Tsunami, the protector of Jurai and source  
of its power, returned home to check for replies to a telephone message.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misato awoke. Pain was throbbing in her head. What did she do last night?  
That's right, she drank, and then she slept while Asuka got depressed enough to  
yell, unlike Shinji, who gets depressed enough to imitate a rock, and unlike  
herself, who gets depressed enough to drink. Not that Asuka could be blamed;  
she had spent years trying to live up to what she imagined her mother would  
have expected of her, pushing herself much harder than the woman would really  
have wanted had she stayed alive and well.  
  
And Asuka's problem was a whopper. As far as Misato could figure out,  
Asuka was bothered because NERV no longer mattered. Misato herself had joined  
NERV for the chance of getting back at the Angels; she understood very well.  
Was everyone just a bunch of natives on an island, throwing spears and  
occasionally running in fear when an airplane roared overhead like an angel?  
  
Misato nuked herself a cup of coffee and guzzled it. It might help her get  
over the hangover, but she doubted that. Then, looking around the room, she  
spotted her answering machine, light still blinking. She had been so eager to  
precede Asuka into mental hopelessness that she had ignored it. Okay, she  
thought, let's see who this one is.  
  
*Beep* "Hello. I'm calling from the T2PC, the Tokyo-2 Polling  
Corporation. We're contacting you in the hope that you'll participate in our  
survey about answering machines. We're gathering information on how people use  
them to screen out junk c---." Misato pressed the 'clear' button.  
  
*Beep* "Hello, Misato, this is Sasami. I need to talk to you, and  
Ritsuko, and Kaji. And it has to be in person. I knew all three of you in  
college, and you all knew there were some things I wouldn't talk about.  
Considering what happened to the Fourteenth Angel this Thursday, it's about  
time you hear what they are. Please give me a call back at this number...."  
  
So I was right, thought Misato. Looking up Akuma... calling to find that  
that was where her old college friend lived... that was the right thing to do  
after all. Sasami was up to her neck in something, but she was willing to let  
Misato in on it, and maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the end of her fight against  
the Angels at all. In two days Misato could be working on Sasami's employers'  
secret project. On the other hand, depending on who Sasami was working for,  
Misato could be fired, imprisoned, or just fleeing for her life if not actually  
dead.  
  
Not that she had a lot of choice, since unless Akuma magically disappeared  
there would be no further use for NERV. Misato dialed Sasami's number and left  
her acceptance.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Whee", mumbled Misato sarcastically as her car passed over yet another  
bump in the mountain road. How out-of-the-way was this restaurant Sasami had  
suggested, anyway?  
  
It was a bit too far, but she eventually did arrive, at a building that  
must have survived from before the Second Impact--of course, high up in the  
mountains, it would have been out of reach of the floods, and it was well  
sheltered from the bomb that hit Tokyo. The neon sign on the front advertising  
"Fried Mountain Stream Fish" made the place look even older. Misato parked her  
car on a bed of gravel next to two other cars that she recognized as belonging  
to Kaji and Ritsuko, and entered.  
  
Inside was standing Sasami, Kaji, Ritsuko, a man who looked like an older  
version of Akuma, and a woman with spiky hair, prominent ears, and wearing some  
kind of tacky contact lenses that gave her eyes the appearance of a cat's.  
"Hello", said Sasami. "Sorry this was so far away, but the owner is an old  
friend of my brother's. We can talk about anything here perfectly safely."  
  
After a waiter brought them to a booth for six in the back far away from  
what few other customers were present, Sasami looked at Misato and the others  
and cleared her throat. "This is Ryouko, my niece", she said, indicating the  
woman with the spiky hair. "And this is Tenchi, her husband."  
  
"Nice to meet you", said each one in turn, and shook hands around the  
table.  
  
"We've discussed this together, everyone", said Sasami, "and we've decided  
to explain what we can. You're all keeping secrets for the government already,  
and we hope we can trust you to keep a few more. It's for the government, in  
a way, though some branches aren't that good at telling other branches what  
they know. Is there anyone who thinks they can't do that?"  
  
Misato shook her head. She looked at the table, and neither Kaji nor  
Ritsuko seemed about to leave. But that was silly, thought Misato. If anyone  
was going to tell someone else, they wouldn't say it to Sasami. Sasami really  
shouldn't trust other people that much.  
  
"The long and short of it...", said Sasami.  
  
Ryouko floated upwards. Her knees drifted right through the table, and her  
head embedded itself in the latticework atop the booth. Interrupting Sasami,  
she said "... is that we're from outer space. Me, and Sasami, and even Tenchi  
a little bit." Sasami glared at Ryouko, who descended back into her seat.  
  
"That's..." said Kaji, astonishment twisting his face into a mask. Misato  
knew she must have looked just as bad herself.  
  
"Kaji..." said Misato, "I think it makes some sense. I saw what happened to  
the Fourteenth Angel. The boy Akuma destroyed it, and when he came back he  
insisted that he wasn't an Angel. If anything else can explain it, it's  
something like this."  
  
After a slight gasp, Ritsuko watched it all with scientific detachment, but  
Misato wondered just what she really thought.  
  
"We've been around for a long time", continued Sasami. "Over seven hundred  
years. Earth is officially Colonial Planet Number 0315, under the control of  
the planet Jurai."  
  
"You've got to be kidding", replied Misato.  
  
"The government does know about us. They keep contact in secret, and we  
don't usually tell them what to do. Except for little details like our family  
registers."  
  
"Why are you here?" asked Ritsuko. "What do you want from us?"  
  
"We're here because we like it here!" exclaimed Ryouko.  
  
"And I was born here", added Tenchi.  
  
"And we would have stayed like this", said Sasami, "except for that project  
at your Tokyo-3. Somehow Tenchi and Ryouko's son got chosen for it, and then  
he ended up fighting an Angel barehanded. And he won."  
  
"Tenchi and I", said Ryouko, "are proud that our son saved the world, but  
after that we had little choice, especially with what Sasami discovered.  
Either we could tell you what happened... or we could leave the planet. And  
then our son would have lost his chance at a normal childhood, something I  
never could have myself. Even if there was an Earth to go back to later."  
  
"There really was no choice at all", said Tenchi.  
  
"What do you mean, 'even if there was an Earth'?" asked Misato. "You've  
heard about..."  
  
Sasami replied. "What she means, Misato, is that I found the secret behind  
NERV, behind SEELE. They started the Second Impact by forcing Adam's soul  
out... I'm sure you've heard of Adam... and they're trying to start a Third  
Impact to unite all of humanity into one mind. Once all the Angels are gone  
and can't unite with Adam, humans will be united instead. It has to be  
stopped."  
  
"I've heard nothing of this", said Ritsuko. "And why should I believe  
you?"  
  
"Because Earth is our home now", replied Sasami.  
  
Was that supposed to be an explanation? wondered Misato. "What do you want  
us to do?"  
  
"Nothing", replied Sasami. "Oh, if you run across some good information,  
it couldn't hurt to give me a ring, but we're really not expecting anything.  
Just let us take care of it as best we can. I don't think you'd survive spying  
on SEELE. But don't report us to anyone."  
  
Silence descended on the table after Sasami finished speaking. A waiter  
timidly peeked in and asked "May I take your order now?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"There's a message for you, Misato", said Maya. "Sealed, and paper-only."  
She handed Misato a manila envelope, stamped "Top Secret", and Misato tore it  
open.   
  
Inside was a letter, dated the previous day and signed by the Prime  
Minister of Japan. Giving her orders in a way that bypassed the usual chain of  
command--orders not to investigate or speak about anything related to Jurai,  
Juraians, or friends of Juraians. No names were listed, but Misato knew very  
well who the letter was referring to.  
  
Well, thought Misato, maybe Sasami wasn't that naive after all. But now  
what? There were aliens on Earth. She _knew_ one of them, had drinks with  
her... heck, she worked with her in physics lab back in college. It was a  
pretty big pill to swallow. And NERV was still obsolete.  
  
But if what Sasami was saying was true, NERV had been obsolete all along.  
Misato thought she was fighting for humanity, but she was really helping the  
men who killed her father with their own selfish ambitions. She didn't know  
what to think.  
  
At least what she had to do didn't depend on whether she believed it or  
not, as long as she didn't go straight to Gendou to report it. So any action  
could be delayed a little longer.  
  
That was a good plan, thought Misato, as she tried to decide how best to  
ration out a case of beer to herself.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Good morning Sasami", said Kaji as his co-worker-cum-space-alien entered.  
"About last night...."  
  
"I know. It's hard to believe. I didn't want to do it... none of us  
really did. But if we're lucky we'll make it through this and fade back into  
obscurity again."  
  
"Could you tell me a little bit about your planet, Sasami?"  
  
"It's beautiful. There's no pollution, and it's full of trees. Let me  
tell you about the bonding ceremony...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Ritsuko looked at the letter in her hands. Urgent, and from the Prime  
Minister. It demonstrated that Sasami really did have some of the influence  
that she said that people like her had. But, Ritsuko wondered, what should she  
do?  
  
Ritsuko dialed up a secure line and rang Gendou. He was always so cold to  
her, even in bed. But maybe giving him this bit of information could get him  
to open up a bit more. "Commander Ikari, there's something I need to tell you  
about...."  
  
END CHAPTER 5.  



	6. Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 6  
Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited  
  
Gendou knew that he could not plan for every contingency. No man could.  
But as each Angel died and as each obstacle in his path went away, his goal of  
union seemed more attainable. He thought about it almost constantly now; he  
could almost see Yui's face. He imagined her smiling at him, him running to  
her as she welcomed him back to eternal peace with her after so much time in  
her absence.  
  
Yet now that the light at the end of the tunnel was so brilliant that  
Gendou could see little else, he had stumbled. One of those nearly-impossible  
contingencies had happened. The last Angel wasn't cooperative. He was  
working with SEELE in some way that Gendou couldn't completely figure out.  
And then, Rei was corrupted. No doubt, SEELE's handiwork again. Gendou worked  
with them, but he never did like them, and he liked them even less now.  
  
The phone rang. Gendou picked up the receiver and answered "Hello. This  
is Ikari Gendou".  
  
"It's me, Commander Ikari. Ritsuko."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Commander Ikari, there's something I need to tell you about. It's hard to  
believe, but I was there; I saw it."  
  
"Get to the point."  
  
"There isn't any Fifteenth Angel yet." Seventeenth, thought Gendou, but  
Ritsuko didn't know that. He hadn't trusted her with all the details of the  
project, after all. "They're really from outer space", she continued.  
  
"Really?" replied Gendou. "You're one of the few people I've trusted with  
the truth. You should know that Adam was on Earth all along until the  
Katsuragi Expedition..."  
  
"No! Commander Ikari, it's a mixup. They're not the Angels. They're  
something else. Space people, if you believe them. We thought that the  
Angels were unique. It never occurred to us that if there was one set of  
beings of unimaginable power there could be another. One whose attention NERV  
has just attracted."  
  
"How do you know this?"  
  
"Because I met them. Because they knew a lot more than they should, even  
though they did have some strange ideas about a Third Impact. Because they're  
so entwined with the government that the Prime Minister gives orders upon  
their command. And because one of them floats through ceilings."  
  
It could be, thought Gendou... it could be. Ritsuko usually stayed pretty  
level-headed when she was on her own, and it really wasn't that hard to  
consider that space aliens might exist given all the discoveries that lead to  
the creation of NERV in the first place. Gendou lowered his voice, and pushed  
feeling into it. That always worked with Ritsuko. "Ritsuko... you do realize  
that this sort of thing demands proof, don't you? I believe you, but others  
might not. SEELE certainly won't. I wish I could act on that information, but  
there's nothing I can do yet. If you could tell me when you find out a little  
more?"  
  
"I understand. I'll do that, then."  
  
"Thank you" said Gendou curtly, and hung the phone up.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Girls with light blue hair and red eyes were never very common in Japan,  
but there were a few. They almost all had something special about them.  
  
The phone in one such girl's dorm room rang as she prepared to haul a load  
of clothes out to the laundry room. She nearly considered letting the person  
on the other end play phone tag with her answering machine, but noticed that a  
small crab-shaped light was flickering. That meant this wasn't a normal phone  
call.  
  
"Hello", she said, picking up the headset and pressing a button near the  
light. "Duchess Masaki speaking."  
  
The face of a woman with purple hair appeared on the screen. "How _dare_  
you use that tone of voice with me, a princess of the empire of Jurai. And  
addressing yourself by title. How rude."  
  
"And how dare you", replied Mayuka, "fail to properly set an example for  
your descendants, who slave away all day on a colony planet taking calculus  
exams while the princess sits on Jurai eating, um..." Mayuka thought a moment  
and said "Eating natto." Aeka hated natto.  
  
"Oh, ho, ho. Such crudity from one whose eyes are constantly bloodshot, no  
doubt due to the ribald parties she holds in her dorm."  
  
Mayuka was beginning to laugh too. "Woman, I am not the one who was once  
almost engaged to a pink-haired man straight out of a shonen ai manga..." She  
suppressed her laughter. "Anyway, how are you, aunt Aeka?"  
  
"I'm fine, I just called to warn you. And by the way, that was a great  
guess."  
  
"Hm? You...." Oh no, it couldn't be, thought Mayuka. "You... started  
eating natto?"  
  
Aeka looked innocent. "Would I do that? No, Mom and Dad and Mom are  
coming to visit all of you. It was supposed to be a surprise. You know, 'oh,  
it's been so long since we've seen you, and by the way we really hope you'll  
marry this really nice guy...'"  
  
"With pink hair?"  
  
"With pink hair. At least they can't engage you just like *that*" said  
Aeka, snapping her fingers. "You're not their daughter, you're four  
generations down."  
  
"Do you think I'll have to fight him myself? They're obviously not going  
to ask Dad any more; he's too powerful."  
  
"I don't know, but if you do, be careful. Men like that try to make  
themselves look all useless and innocent. So they can just nonchalantly  
win against someone and make it look like he was defeated by a complete fop.  
I've seen Seiryou train; he's more familiar with swords than we are with  
insults."  
  
"Well, thanks for the warning. I'll see you around."  
  
"Bye, Duchess."  
  
* * * * *  
  
A circle of black monoliths floated in the dark musty air. One of them  
(the one with the "3") spoke.  
  
"It is good that Ritsuko has not yet found the transmitter", it told its  
compatriots. "With a wiretap in her own phone, it doesn't matter that she is  
on a secure line." A speaker activated; from it came the recorded voices of  
Gendou and Ritsuko. "It never occurred to us that if there was one set of  
beings of unimaginable power there could be another."  
  
They then played the entire speech. Discussion exploded. "It's a  
possibility." "The threat must be eliminated." "It is hasty. There will be  
investigations." "If the Project completes first, investigations will not  
matter."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The whole family gathered in the living room, occasionally staring out the  
window at the sky as if something unexpected were to fall out of it at any  
moment.  
  
"What do I do?!" yelled Mayuka.  
  
"It'll be fine", replied Tenchi. "Just act nice but never say 'yes' to  
anything. It's not as if you've never met them before."  
  
"The last time I met them, Dad, was six years ago. I was too young for  
them to do something like this."  
  
"Not really. Aeka got engaged to your great-grandpa when she was even  
younger."  
  
Ryouko raised a finger and interrupted. "I have an idea, Mayuka."  
  
"Yes?" replied Mayuka.  
  
"You could say you're engaged to Akuma, so you can't marry Seiryou."  
  
In the background, Akuma silently shook his head.  
  
"Um, Mom?" replied Mayuka. "He's my brother. We couldn't... oh. Good  
point. But I'm not going to do it. If I can't handle a few inlaws on my own,  
I don't deserve having a royal title...."  
  
"Oh, stop worrying about that. They had to make me a _princess_, and you  
know all about my past. And all I did to get the title was to marry your  
Dad."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Washuu punched the glowing buttons on her ethereal, floating, computer  
terminal. "Five minutes", she announced.  
  
"Five minutes to what?" asked Ryouko suspiciously, familiar with how not to  
interpret Washuu's remarks.  
  
"Five minutes to the Emeraldas reruns. Oh, don't worry, I'm recording  
them. And less than five for the King to get here, considering when his ship  
landed. I'd estimate just right about..."  
  
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.  
  
"Hello, who is it?" asked Washuu. Akuma didn't recall his grandmother ever  
wondering who was on the other side of a door before.  
  
"Is Yosho there? We're his parents. We just dropped by to visit."  
  
"Oh!" exclaimed Yosho. "This is a complete surprise. Come on in, come on  
in", he said as he opened the door for the King and his two wives. "We really  
weren't expecting you, so pardon us if the house is a bit of a mess."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misaki, the second queen, rushed forwards to hug Mayuka. "My, how you've  
grown. I missed you so much, and I hope you've been eating well. Sasami is  
still not cooking the food, is she? You'd think that after fifteen years  
she'd get over her anger and be helpful again."  
  
Through the still-open door, Sasami walked in. "I heard that", she said.  
"Mom, you got it all wrong. It wasn't a fit of anger."  
  
"Oh, Sasami! You're still so cute!" Misaki let go of Mayuka to glomp  
Sasami. "And you shouldn't go out in the heat, you're sweating too much. It'll  
ruin your skin."  
  
"Wait, don't!" gasped out Sasami, who was nearly suffocating in Misaki's  
embrace. "I was just in..."  
  
"Don't say anything!" exclaimed Misaki. "Give your mother a hug!"  
  
"But Mother..."  
  
Mayuka walked behind Misaki and put two hands on Misaki's head, one on  
each ear. With a strong pull she forced it to turn towards towards herself.  
"Your Highness, I think Sasami's trying to tell you something."  
  
"She is?"  
  
"Right, I am", said Sasami.  
  
"Oh. Well, you can let me know!"  
  
"I'm not sweating. That's cream to protect me from the poison ivy. And  
there's still some poison ivy on my clothes."  
  
"What's poison ivy?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You know, Ryouko, that book caused quite a stir", said Funaho.  
  
"What book?" wondered Ryouko, innocence covering her face.  
  
"_Death from Jurai_."  
  
"Oh, that", said Ryouko. "It's not as if Tenchi and me write much. It  
was just a spare time project."  
  
"It got quite popular, Ryouko. Five thousand planets reading a lurid  
thriller about the Eyth System Massacre. Jurai doesn't usually have its  
dirty laundry dragged out like that. We couldn't even ban it or it would go  
underground and become even more popular."  
  
"Hey, you were pirates, what can I say?" said Ryouko, shrugging casually.  
"Some of you still are. We all know that the royal family started as a pirate  
guild."  
  
"Besides", said Funaho, "you wanted to take advantage of all the pirate  
hype from 'Dread Pirate Ryouko'."  
  
"There is that. If some minor Juraian noble wanted to make me look bad by  
broadcasting everything I did under Kagato's control, I may as well get  
something out of it."  
  
"And once your own book came out, Lord Mueki had to change his mind about  
pirates being bad."  
  
"There is that too."  
  
"Confidentially", whispered Funaho, "I couldn't have done it better  
myself."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Since it was still a few hours before dinner, the group quickly broke up  
into various smaller chats (except for Misaki, who was turning red on her face  
and arms and scratching a lot).  
  
"So how are you children?" asked Azusa.  
  
"I'm not a 'children'", replied Mayuka. "But I'm doing well. I still  
haven't chosen my major yet though."  
  
"Your major?"  
  
"She's in college now", said Akuma.  
  
"I'm going to school at---"  
  
Suddenly a plane roared overhead, interrupting Mayuka and generally  
bringing all conversation in the living room to a half. Mayuka turned to look  
out the window. "They're dropping something..." she noted, watching an object  
falling through the sky.  
  
Washuu glanced out the window, then immediately handed Misaki a jar of  
blue cream, and, leaving the woman to figure out how to use it without looking  
like a Gamilon, brought out her computer keyboard and feverishly started  
punching the keys.  
  
"Hey, Mom, Dad, Grandma", said Mayuka. "I think someone dropped a rock  
out into the field."  
  
"Really?" said Washuu. Why would anyone do that? Oh, there's nobody out  
there, right? And nothing important?"  
  
"Come on and look, Grandma. It's just east of the carrot patch...."  
  
"That's where I parked the spaceship!" exclaimed Azusa.  
  
"It is?" answered Washuu. She glanced at the field. "I don't see  
anything. Just a large metal thing and some pieces of pink scrap." She  
returned to fiddling with her keyboard.  
  
"The spaceship is hidden so the Earthlings won't see it!"  
  
"Don't call them Earthlings. I believe the right word is 'Terrans'", said  
Washuu. "'Earthlings' is a word with discriminatory connotations...."  
  
The king reached into his pocket for something. Immediately, a patch of  
grass dozens of meters long shimmered, revealing the form of a winged  
spaceship. The ship was painted pink with green stripes. It also had a gash  
torn through its left wing, which ended at a large metal object as tall as a  
man, making the source of the scraps on the ground now obvious. A Juraian  
man, whose hair was neon-pink, was slowly walking around the ship, just staring  
in disbelief at the damage.  
  
"Oh, I see you brought a friend!" said Mayuka. "Is that his spaceship?"  
  
"Yes, it is", replied the king. "Mine doesn't have landing capability."  
  
"I'm terribly sorry", said Washuu. "That experiment wasn't supposed to do  
that, but I assure you I took all precautions to aim it towards an empty field.  
Your visit was a complete surprise.... Oh, Sasami, Tenchi, Ryouko, I need to  
speak with you in my lab about that."  
  
"Huh?" said Tenchi.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"So what's the big deal with your experiments?" wondered Ryouko. "Someone  
could have been killed."  
  
"It's not my experiment", the adult, but still eccentric, scientist  
answered.  
  
"What is it then?" asked Ryouko.  
  
"Oh", explained Washuu, "it's just Sasami's friends over at SEELE. They  
were being friendly today and decided to greet us with an expensive piece of  
machinery. An N2 bomb dropped on our house. I slowed down its time rate so  
it won't explode for another week."  
  
"What?" yelled Ryouko. "Someone's trying to kill us? We have to do  
something about it."  
  
"Not while the King is here", answered Washuu.  
  
"I see", said Tenchi. "You really don't want the King of Jurai to know  
that someone on Colonial Planet 0315 was trying to assassinate me. And,  
incidentally, kill the King and Queens too just because they happened to be  
there."  
  
"I like the Earth", said Washuu. "Nice and calm and out of the way, even  
if there was that accident with Adam fifteen years ago. I'd really rather not  
see his advisers recommend that something be done about the 'menace'."  
  
"It's not a menace to them", said Ryouko. "Just to people who come here  
or live here, and I can easily destroy that menace for good." She clenched  
her fists, energy crackling from them.  
  
Tenchi shook his head. "Ryouko, I think this would be the perfect excuse  
for factions in the court who don't like us anyway, to decide that Earth people  
can't be trusted because they almost killed the King. We have to keep silent  
about it."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"I'm really terribly sorry, your Majesty", said Washuu. "If you send me  
a bill I'd be glad to pay for any damage I caused. I have a few planets in  
my lab, I can afford it for the sake of galactic peace."  
  
Azusa seemed about to answer that, but Funaho spoke first. "I'm sure that  
we can handle this on our own", she said, and winked at Washuu. Azusa  
shrugged; what could he do?  
  
* * * * *  
  
The evening was not exactly uneventful--a visit by the royal family never  
was, even for a group of people as unconcerned with titles and protocol as  
the Masakis and their relatives. On the other hand, there weren't any more  
planes roaring overhead (the only unusual sound from outside was a man  
hammering boards onto the wing of his spaceship), and SEELE seemed to have run  
out of high-tech gifts. Eventually everyone went to sleep, except for  
Ryouko, who spent the night trying to outdrink Misaki and finally went to sleep  
(in instant sobriety) after everyone else.  
  
"Mmmm..." said Ryouko, stirring in her bed. "Tenchi...." Tenchi hadn't  
really resisted Ryouko's advances since he was a teenager, of course, but  
since he was was genuinely asleep, he didn't notice anything. "Tenchi...?"  
murmured Ryouko, turning over in the bed right on top of Tenchi.  
  
A crab-haired scientist stepped out of a door that floated in the middle  
of the air. She poked Ryouko. "Don't make out in your sleep. It's unseemly."  
  
Ryouko's eyes cracked open, and she yawned. "You can't have him", she  
murmured, still half-asleep.  
  
"Ryouko! Tenchi!" yelled Washuu.  
  
"Huh? What?" said Tenchi, his eyes creaking open too as he disentangled  
himself reluctantly from Ryouko, the presence of his mother-in-law overriding  
the stimulation of having his forever-beautiful wife glomped onto him.  
  
"I thought you didn't like people entering without knocking", said Ryouko.  
  
"Well, I did knock", answered Washuu, not explaining why her door was  
inside instead of outside. "It's not my fault you two sleep like bears in the  
winter. I've found the fifteenth Angel. I think you'd better go and take it  
out. Here's the coordinates." She pushed a post-it note into Ryouko's hand.  
  
"No", replied Ryouko, not grabbing the note, which dangled stuck to her  
wrist. "It can stay there a little longer. We've had a hard day."  
  
"It can also decide to wake up and destroy the world instead", said Sasami,  
stepping through Washuu's door.  
  
"We'd better do it", said Tenchi. "I should get my suit on... it's been  
a long time since I've used this. Tenchi snapped his fingers and his Juraian  
battlesuit appeared on himself. "God, doing this makes me feel like Sailor  
Moon."  
  
"I won't look good in the morning without any sleep", said Ryouko.  
  
"You look fine anytime", said Tenchi.  
  
Ryouko hugged Tenchi and leaned into his face, but with a noticeable lack of  
romance, whispered "It was an excuse, Tenchi."  
  
Tenchi shook his head. "We have to go."  
  
"I know that", replied Ryouko. "I just wanted to have a little fun."  
  
* * * * *  
  
*Knock, knock*, went the door.  
  
"Who is it?" yelled Ryouko.  
  
"Don't say 'who is it', it's me." The voice was feminine and knowing.  
It was easily recognizeable as that of the first Queen.  
  
"All right, Funaho, come on in", said Tenchi, opening the door for the  
Queen. Sasami, seeing her, discreetly backed off back through the floating  
door.  
  
"Tenchi... Ryouko...", she said, "I was hoping you were awake. I just  
wanted to ask you... do you know if there's anyone in Mayuka's life?"  
  
"What?" wondered Ryouko. "You mean, like a boyfriend?"  
  
"Of course", said Funaho. "Like a boyfriend. Because we know this man  
who we're sure she'd get along with quite well. She isn't engaged, is she?  
I'd understand if she was going to marry Akuma, but otherwise...."  
  
"Uh-huh", replied Ryouko. "The guy with the Chibi-Usa dye job, who you've  
been trying to marry off since before the Second Impact. You make marrying  
her to her brother sound like a good idea."  
  
"Well, er..." Funaho turned away a bit, but soon regained her composure.  
"There's nothing wrong with Seiryou. There are lots of people like him on  
Jurai, you know."  
  
Yes, thought Ryouko. One reason why they don't live there. "Anyway",  
she said, "we have to go. We need to..."  
  
Tenchi immediately clasped his hand over Ryouko's mouth. You just don't  
tell the royal family that the world they're staying on could get blown up  
underneath them. "We have to, er, go let Washuu do some tests on this  
battlesuit. It's really nothing, you can go ahead." That might work. It  
even explained the suit.  
  
Funaho smiled. "That's good, then, because I hope I could convince you.  
You see, Seiryou comes from a very well-placed family and his brother is a big  
part of the anti-Earth faction... if he were to marry Mayuka, they'd have to  
quiet down. It's all a matter of politics. Just because Jurai has a royal  
family doesn't mean we're immune to politics, you know. And the anti-Earth  
group has opposed us ever since I married in, hundreds of years ago...."  
  
Funaho told her story, sincere and earnest, impressing on Tenchi the need  
for him and his daughter to make a few sacrifices for the good of the planet  
Jurai, and for her, and for himself.  
  
Meanwhile, Tenchi's thoughts began to turn more towards an image of the  
whole Earth turned into an advertisement for the Okinawa Citrus Juice  
Association. He knew, intellectually, that it wasn't likely that the Angel  
would wake up at that exact moment, but the impending doom of the planet does  
tend to make one worry regardless.  
  
"Tenchi... Ryouko... have you been listening to a word I've been saying?"  
  
"Yes, Funaho", answered Ryouko, Tenchi nodding in agreement a with her a  
moment later.  
  
"Well, what do you think?" asked Funaho.  
  
"I think", replied Ryouko, "that I'm going to go out for a drink. Tenchi,  
would you like to come with me?"  
  
"Oh, no, you don't!" exclaimed Funaho. "I came here specifically so I  
could talk to just you and there really isn't another good time for it. Why  
don't you think it over a bit? You could have a drink any time. I'll even  
invite you to the palace later for one."  
  
"We have to go to the bathroom?" said Tenchi, uncertainly.  
  
"You don't have to go to the bathroom", replied Funaho. Tenchi tensed;  
how much did Funaho know? "You're just being rude because you don't like  
Seiryou. But think about the good for our people, both our peoples."  
  
"We have to ask Mayuka about it", said Ryouko. "So we really do have to go  
and wake her up."  
  
"I hoped we could make it a foregone conclusion first. Though Seiryou's  
quite handsome, we both know this isn't just about romance. But go ahead, go."  
  
"Whew..." said Ryouko, grabbing Tenchi's hand and stepping towards the wall.  
  
Funaho pointed to the adjoining wall. "I thought Mayuka's room was that  
way."  
  
"Oh, yeah", said Ryouko as she turned in the right direction and Washuu  
giggled.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"What do we do?" asked Tenchi as the two phased through the wall to  
Mayuka's room. "We have to go, or the royal family is going to literally talk  
us to death."  
  
"Mom, Dad!" yelled Mayuka. "I thought you didn't like people entering  
without knocking."  
  
"You were _listening_", said Tenchi.  
  
"Of course I was listening. Making out in your sleep...."  
  
"Really, dear, it was nothing embarrassing", said Ryouko. "And you don't  
have to worry about Seiryou. We're not going to engage you to anyone."  
  
"That's not what I'm worried about, Mom. You and Dad could get hurt out  
there."  
  
"We'll be fine", said Tenchi. "We've survived much worse."  
  
At that moment, Funaho threw the door open and raised her voice slightly.  
"What do you _mean_ 'much worse'? It's an offer. It's for _your_ sake. You  
should be glad I don't get angry easily."  
  
"I wasn't--" said Tenchi before Ryouko shushed him.  
  
"Mayuka", said Funaho, "please consider it. Marriage in a royal family is  
sometimes difficult, and it's done for many reasons."  
  
"Considering how you married the King, I'm surprised you're bothering to  
tell me all this."  
  
"Mayuka!" exclaimed Funaho. The girl didn't seem to care, though.  
  
"Hello, Mayuka", said the King, following behind Funaho. Misaki was on  
his arm, giggling.  
  
"It's really for the best, Mayuka", said Misaki. "And you'll love Seiryou.  
He makes interesting conversation."  
  
"By your standards", answered Mayuka.  
  
"Mayuka", whispered Tenchi, "be strong. We'll be right back." Following  
Tenchi's cue, Ryouko took his hand and they both disappeared into the air.  
  
* * * * *  
  
They reappeared in a room full of meowing crystals. The only other  
person standing around was Sasami. "That was fast!" she said. "You couldn't  
have been more than fifteen minutes."  
  
"I just hope poor Mayuka doesn't agree to marry Seiryou just to get them  
off her back", said Tenchi.  
  
"I love them dearly", said Sasami, "but they're out of touch. They want  
Jurai to become too respectable. Anyway, do you know where the Angel is?"  
  
Ryouko reached for her pocket. "I had the note right here... wait a  
minute... this outfit doesn't have any pockets. I know I put it somewhere.  
Tenchi?"  
  
Sasami silently raised a hand, waving it to catch Ryouko's eye; then she  
pointed her fingers towards Tenchi. "Oh", said Ryouko, pulling the post-it  
note off of Tenchi's back, where it had stuck when she had hugged him.  
Reading the coordinates, she said "It's in space. And its name is Arael.  
It seems to be the one Angel that knows that you're supposed to nuke a planet  
from orbit to be sure."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The Angel glowed brilliantly in the darkness of space, a braided circle of  
luminescence that emanated enough power to rival Kagato. As it appeared on the  
viewscreen, Ryouko ordered Ryo-ohki to stop. There was no way her pet ship's  
firepower would affect it. They'd have to bring out the big guns.  
  
A column of light around all three passengers transported them to the  
outside and Ryouko and Sasami immediately flew off towards the Angel.  
  
Tenchi, meanwhile, began to choke. There wasn't any air... it wasn't  
possible to survive. But, with eighteen years of experience using the  
Light Hawk Wings at will, he knew that more was possible than he could have  
ever imagined back when he was a teenager. The Light Hawk Wings could create  
far more energy than the body could ever get from burning up sugars and oxygen.  
All he had to do was absorb a miniscule fraction of it, and he could make  
himself live in space.  
  
Ryouko turned to Tenchi when he didn't follow him, and saw his obvious  
distress at adapting to space. She began to fly back. "Tenchi!" she yelled,  
but the sound didn't carry.  
  
"Ryouko, I'm okay" yelled Tenchi, but all she could see was his mouth  
movements. Tenchi waved his hands frantically at the sight of the glowing  
object behind her. It was beginning to shift shape. "Ryouko, don't worry  
about me, watch your back...."  
  
Reading Tenchi's lips, Ryouko turned back towards the Angel, but as she  
turned it opened its eyes. Its unholy white gaze lanced out at Ryouko, the  
beam striking her before she even had a chance to put up a shield.  
  
* * * * *  
  
No, not again. Ryouko relived those thousands of years, enslaved to a man  
who forced her to rob and kill. She felt herself fly on the planet Brumis  
through a crowd, three feet off the ground with her energy swords chopping  
dozens of people into bloody stumps as she passed them. She could taste the  
nerve gas that they threw at her, slaughtering dozens more of their own people  
in a vain attempt to kill the Devil of Destruction. And the same was repeated  
for thousands of planets, over enough years to fit the history of Japan into  
three times over.  
  
And she knew that she was reliving that pain because of their new enemy.  
The Angel was created by man, but it knew less of human feelings than she did.  
She could go mad as it churned through her mind. No... no... she survived  
for millennia with her sanity intact. She couldn't break now. That time  
with Kagato wasn't the end; she was captured and then she lay half asleep in  
peace until Tenchi awoke her... Tenchi....  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Ryouko... Ryouko!" yelled Tenchi. He flew to her, icy motes hitting  
his battlesuit... frozen tears, he realized. He took her in her arms and  
summoned the full Light Hawk Wings. It tore through the Angel's beam and  
surrounded him and Ryouko.  
  
"Tenchi... it made me remember..." she murmured. Tenchi immediately  
knew just what that meant.  
  
"You bastard", said Tenchi to the floating Angel. "Ryouko, we're going to  
destroy it. We're going to destroy it now. Sasami, we need your help..."  
Ryouko summoned what she could of the Light Hawk Wings--her powers having  
grown much since she was freed from the cave--and Sasami, having merged with  
her goddess half years ago, created ten more.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Four blue patterns?" wondered Misato. "Maya, there isn't some kind of  
mistake?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
For a moment a small sun lit up the sky hundreds of miles above Asia.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Four... no, there's three now", replied Maya. "Wait... the others are  
fading away, gradually...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"We got it", said Tenchi, whispering directly into Ryouko's ear so she  
could hear. "We all got it. The AT Field just shattered with all that power.  
It's over, Ryouko. The Angel's never going to do that to you again."  
  
"Tenchi..." murmured Ryouko, clinging to him and making them both tumble in  
the zero-gravity environment. "I... I'm glad you and everyone gave me a  
chance to live in peace...."  
  
"You don't have to say anything, Ryouko."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Ryo-ohki?" said Tenchi after the three beamed back aboard.  
  
"Mew?" came a quizzical sound from all directions.  
  
"We need to get back home. Ryouko's upset, and I can't blame her."  
  
"Mew?"  
  
"It dredged up her old memories... and that's most of her existence."  
  
"Mew." The cabbit-ship flew back down to Earth.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Tenchi opened the door to Mayuka's room a crack. His daughter was busy  
giving the King and Queens a lecture on the social structure of the government  
on Earth and how she really couldn't be expected to do things the Juraian way.  
They all looked bored, even Misaki; they were sweating slightly; and all three  
were slowly edging towards the door.  
  
"Oh, hello", said Tenchi. "Did you come to a decision yet?"  
  
"Don't worry, Dad", said Mayuka. "I'm just explaining why I can't really  
marry Seiryou after all. I'm sure we can figure something out in another  
hour or so."  
  
"Another _hour_" said Funaho?  
  
King Azusa pushed the door open the rest of the way with his foot and all  
three royals fled.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Are you all right, Mom?" asked Mayuka worriedly. "We heard what happened  
up there in space with the Angel."  
  
"Mom?" said Akuma.  
  
"I'm okay", said Ryouko. "If I couldn't deal with it I would have been  
dead by my own hand before you two were even around. It's not just that the  
Angel brought back bad memories... it's that it screwed with my head so that I  
wasn't able to cope."  
  
"She's okay", said Washuu. "I can tell."  
  
"That's good..." said Akuma. "Wait. Grandmother Washuu, could that  
explain NERV? Everyone lives around a buried Angel... well, an Angel-like  
thing. And NERV has more messed-up people than anywhere else that isn't on  
the Soap Opera Channel. Maybe the Angel is influencing them. They couldn't  
all just be like that naturally, could they?"  
  
"Naaah", replied Washuu. "I checked that. It's not true. It's almost  
too bad it isn't, though. If that was true, it would all make _sense_."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The sun shone through Mayuka's window. She yawned. Time to go back to  
sleep, she thought, she didn't have classes today... no, wait. It was  
Impromptu-Visit-by-the-King weekend. Oh well, better clean and get dressed and  
say good morning to everyone.  
  
"Good morning", said Seiryou, the first person in the living room to  
notice her entrance. "It's nice to meet you, Mayuka. I wish I could have seen  
you yesterday, but there was this accident...."  
  
It wasn't polite to just ignore him completely, so she greeted him back,  
but after that Mayuka didn't really pay much attention to him. Which was just  
as well; he didn't pay much attention to her. She caught a snippet of  
conversation, though: her father was making an offer. "I'd be glad to settle  
this by personal combat. Isn't that the way it's usually done? Besides, I  
owe you a rematch for that time twenty years ago...." Seiryou didn't seem very  
thrilled by the idea, for some reason.  
  
Eventually, the guests had to leave. The whole household gathered together,  
they exchanged hugs and promises to visit sometime with their guests, and  
finally watched as Seiryou's ship took off into the sky.  
  
"Well, back to school tomorrow", said Mayuka, shrugging. "You know, they  
really are nice people to have around. I wish that one day they'd come just  
to come instead of because they wanted something."  
  
"Back to school for me too", said Akuma. "I just wish I knew what to do  
about all this Angel stuff."  
  
"Back to spying", said Sasami. "Maybe I'll find your answer."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Mayuka", said Tenchi, "there's a message coming in for you. It's from  
Queen Funaho."  
  
"I hope I didn't hurt her feelings", said Mayuka as Tenchi pressed the  
button to show the message on their Washuu-modified television. "I think I  
overdid it a bit."  
  
The screen popped into life. "Hello, Mayuka", said Funaho. "Sorry to  
cause you all that trouble." She laughed a little. "We should have known  
better, Mayuka. This isn't Jurai. You wouldn't just agree."  
  
"Hmm?" said Mayuka.  
  
"Humans share one unique quality: we build communities. If the palace  
guard or the the Science Academy were stationed here like your family is, it  
would be used only for their own benefit. But your own branch here stuck  
together last night; you created a community out of a diverse and sometimes  
hostile population."  
  
"Funaho-grandmother, I'm less than half Earth person and anyway there's  
_plenty_ of blind obedience, blind disobedience, conformity, cowardice, hero or  
emperor worship, and all those other things on the Earth. What are you talking  
about?"  
  
Funaho shrugged. "I know, I know. But it was a nice thought, anyway."  
  
END CHAPTER 6.  



	7. Hospitality

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 7  
Hospitality  
  
  
The bell rang, slightly startling Shinji from his reverie. So he had  
muddled through yet another school day. Not any happier a day than normal,  
but at least one without Angels, his father, or other disturbances that  
always made him feel like someone had run over his heart with a steamroller.  
  
"Goodbye Shinji. See you tomorrow. I have to go do sword practice" said  
someone. Akuma's voice, Shinji knew. A friend, of sorts, despite all the  
doubts.  
  
"Yeah", replied Shinji, standing up. He was going to ask Akuma something,  
but never got a chance to... Oh, right. "Akuma, something I remembered. You  
were going to ask your parents if we could all come and visit, right? Could  
you, I don't know, ask them now?"  
  
"Sure", answered Akuma. "It shouldn't really be a problem."  
  
"He's an Angel", said Asuka as the 'Angel' left. "You shouldn't act  
friendly to him."  
  
Shinji shrugged. "He's going to find out if we can visit his home and meet  
his family. I don't think Angels do that."  
  
"So he'll come back tomorrow and he'll tell you they said 'no'. And you'll  
believe him. Do you even care?"  
  
"No, I don't care, Asuka. What difference is it going to make?"  
  
"What if he hurts you? Idiot Shinji, he's an Angel. He isn't going to  
care about us people out here."  
  
"If he doesn't care about us, why should I care about him? I'm just an Eva  
pilot. I barely have any friends, or family. I'm not trusted with anything.  
What is there about me that would make him want to do anything to me even if he  
is an Angel?"  
  
"How about the Eva pilot part? Do you know how it feels to say 'I _used to  
be_ an Eva pilot'? To stand there and watch as the Angels come while you,  
Shinji, the only verdammt Eva pilot in the only verdammt world, sits there and  
feels sorry for himself while danger is..."  
  
"You never did that", said Rei, approaching Asuka from behind. "Shinji  
hasn't fought any Angels here since we lost our Evangelion units."  
  
"Smart-aleck", said Asuka. "Don't be so literal, Wonder Girl; you know  
what I meant. You don't need to defend Shinji every time he gets rude."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Mom?" asked Akuma.  
  
"What is it?" said Ryouko.  
  
"I want to invite my friends from school over here and meet everyone. For  
real. Spaceships, flying, dimensions, the whole thing."  
  
"You know, Akuma, it would be a lot of fun, but I've never done that.  
Ever."  
  
"But Mom..."  
  
"But what?"  
  
"Didn't you ever want to? Come on, Mom, they know about us already. They  
just know about us in the wrong way. They were watching when I blew that Angel  
up."  
  
Ryouko thought about it. "You're right. I always wanted to go around and  
tell people 'Ryouko's here, and you can't stop her.' To be known for what I  
am, not for what Kagato made me and certainly not what I have to pretend to be  
every time I set foot into Tokyo. Go ahead, have your fun. Be a showoff for  
once. And maybe I should invite..."  
  
"I can?"  
  
Ryouko smiled at her son. "Did I ever say you couldn't? Your friends can  
come whenever you want. Just be careful not to give out any real secrets."  
  
Tenchi, who was carrying a bushel of carrots and had stopped to listen,  
added "If someone on Jurai would know it, it's probably safe to tell your  
friends."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You _what_?" yelled Asuka.  
  
"I asked my parents", replied Akuma. Shinji and Rei nodded as he continued.  
"They said it's okay. What's wrong, Asuka?"  
  
"But you can't! An Angel doesn't have parents."  
  
"The only one who still thinks I'm an Angel is you", he answered. Which  
wasn't really true, but was getting closer ever day. "Want to come? It's not  
a long trip."  
  
"Damn you..." said Asuka, and walked away.  
  
Akuma shrugged. "She's not coming", he told Shinji. "Let's get Kensuke  
and Touji and go without her. You don't have anything to do now, do you?"  
  
Shinji shook his head.  
  
"I am too coming!" Asuka yelled out, running back to the group.  
  
"Come on, Ryo-ohki", said Akuma, motioning to a bush. Out of it popped a  
small furry creature, part cat, part rabbit, with a purplish-red juice stain on  
its mouth. "Ah, I see you've found something to eat that's not a carrot. Dad  
would love that."  
  
Asuka peered at the creature. Getting a good look, she backed away, her  
hand raised in front of her, half to point, half to ward it off. "Just _what_  
is that... _thing_?", she screamed out. "I've never seen anything like it!"  
  
Akuma smiled and said "It's an Angel", not very convincingly. In fact, it  
looked like he was about to break into complete laughter if Asuka showed any  
more signs of associating him with Angels.  
  
"Don't you ever joke about something like that, Devilman!" yelled Asuka,  
regaining a bit of her composure when the creature only backed away in  
response. Kensuke, Touji, and Shinji all laughed, but nervously.  
  
Akuma noticed the not-so-well concealed apprehension on the faces of the  
three. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to scare you. Maybe Asuka, but not you  
three. I swear that the only time anyone in my family has come close to an  
Angel is to blow it up. She's Ryo-ohki, a cabbit. She's Mom's pe--" The  
cabbit squeaked; Akuma corrected his statement to "Uh, she works with Mom",  
and Ryo-ohki miyaed happily.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"I can't believe you were going to leave me behind!" yelled Asuka. "Just  
run off without me, will you? That's not very friendly."  
  
"You didn't want to come", replied Akuma. "Aunt Aeka and my sister are  
both a lot like you. If they get angry you don't cross them and you stay away  
from them as long as you can." He looked at Rei and added "What do you think,  
Rei?" After all, Rei always annoyed Asuka, either by outdoing her or by  
ignoring her... and Akuma wasn't feeling very charitable towards Asuka at the  
moment. Of course, this could backfire, if Rei took Asuka's side.  
  
"Akuma is right", said Rei. Nope, not this time. From Akuma's shoulder,  
Ryo-ohki added a supportive "Miyah". Akuma noted with satisfaction that Asuka  
did fume a bit.  
  
"Are you teleporting us?" asked Touji.  
  
"No, we're going by ship."  
  
"We're in the middle of dry land", said Touji.  
  
"I don't think that's the kind of ship he means", opined Shinji.  
  
"That's right", said Akuma. "How about over there?" he asked, pointing to  
the west of the base where a post-Impact tangle of vines and shrubs covered a  
greyish ruin of some type. Asuka shook her head, which Akuma ignored. "Yeah,  
I think they won't see us too well over there. We won't show up on radar and  
the concrete will hide us on the ground, so unless anyone sees us at the exact  
moment we take off...." He jogged towards the ruins, the others following.  
  
Asuka stopped and slapped her head. "You have a spaceship", she said. "Of  
course. What space aliens wouldn't have a spaceship." Akuma saw an expression  
of terror cross her face as comprehension dawned. "You _mean_ it!" said Asuka.  
  
"Of course I mean it."  
  
"But you really mean it! You're from outer space and you're going to  
abduct us! I don't want to go to an alien planet! We'll be far from anything  
we ever know...."  
  
Touji and Kensuke stopped abruptly. Shinji looked at Akuma with suspicion  
as he too stopped. "A... are you really...?", wondered Kensuke. "We want to  
stay here on the Earth!" Rei just looked at Akuma; Akuma wondered what she  
thought. Did it matter to her? And did she trust Akuma?  
  
"I don't believe this", muttered Akuma. "I'll tell you where we live.  
It's over there", he said, and pointed to a mist-shrouded row of peaks far in  
the distance. "It's around fifty kilometers past those mountains, where the  
ground gets a little flatter again." The cabbit miyaed in agreement. "We're  
not going to another planet. You could take a taxi back if you had a big  
credit card balance. Okay?"  
  
Asuka's attempts at further argument stopped when Rei answered "Okay" for  
the group and Asuka took that as an excuse to stop complaining. Shinji  
shrugged, as if to say "What can I do?" and they all headed towards the ruins.  
  
"Go, Ryo-ohki!" said Akuma, giving her a helpful toss ahead of the group.  
Ryo-ohki's skin smoothed out, then exploded into spikes as the cabbit grew into  
a huge spaceship. The vine-covered wall blocked the view from any onlookers  
at the school, but all of Akuma's group could see quite clearly, and were  
(except for Rei) standing with their mouths open as if they had never seen a  
giant organic mechanism before.  
  
* * * * *  
  
What a place, thought Asuka. It was like some surrealist painting, with  
strange spheres and with diamonds floating in mid-air bearing the image of  
furry faces. And the way they got there... they were beamed in. Beamed in,  
just like in those old Star Trek stories.  
  
"Are we there yet?" asked Asuka sarcastically. It made her feel less  
tense, and besides, if Akuma couldn't take a little joke....  
  
"Yeah, want to leave now?"  
  
Give me a break, thought Asuka. It was only two minutes. Oh wait... if  
this was a spaceship and it could travel for light years, then maybe it could  
have gotten there this fast after all. Oh well, never mind. "Right, get me  
out of this place!"  
  
"You heard her, Ryo-ohki", said Akuma. The ship seemed to respond to his  
voice, because the world disappeared around Asuka and she found herself in the  
middle of a small clearing in a forest, along with the other four teens. A  
short distance away were some green farmlands, a lake, and a house, with more  
forest nearby. She could smell the fresh air and hear the wind and animals in  
the forest. And by the looks of it, this was old growth forest. Asuka had  
never seen a place like this, though she knew that even the climate changes  
caused by Second Impact couldn't have destroyed all of them.  
  
"The gravity seems normal", muttered Asuka under her breath.  
  
"What do you think of it, Rei?" asked Akuma. Hmph, thought Asuka,  
ignoring her.  
  
"It's beautiful", said the albino. "I've never seen a real forest."  
  
"You haven't?" asked Touji. Rei shook her head.  
  
Akuma smiled. "But Aunt Sasami told you about trees, right?" Rei nodded.  
Akuma's tone made it sound like some kind of joke, but Rei wasn't laughing.  
Maybe she couldn't figure it out. That was okay; even Asuka couldn't figure it  
out.  
  
"We could have a picnic", said Akuma. "There's plenty of food. Or we  
could just walk around for a while and see the sights." He pointed towards a  
hillside. "Over there is the cave where Dad met Mom. The carrot fields are  
here... we can skip those. But you have to see Grandma's lab. It's the size  
of a few planets."  
  
"Oh, really?" wondered Asuka. Good lord, she thought, the boy's from outer  
space. He doesn't need to make up nonsense just to impress people.  
  
"Yes, really."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma led the other five teens to the door of his house, and extended a  
ghostlike hand through the door to unlock it from the other side. "Showoff",  
mumbled Asuka under her breath as the door opened.  
  
"Huh?" said Akuma. "What did I do?" Get a clue, thought Asuka.  
  
"Hi... Mom? Dad? Mayuka? Is anyone here?"  
  
A woman appeared out of thin air and reached out to hug Akuma. It must be  
his mother; who else could it be? And her hair looked like a Saiyajin. Asuka  
was pretty surprised that _this_ suspicion had turned out to be true. "Welcome  
home", said the woman. "So these are your friends from school?"  
  
"Yes, Mom."  
  
"Well, nice to meet you all", said the woman. "I'm Ryouko. Make yourselves  
at home here. If you want me before dinner I'll probably be in the onsen."  
  
"Yes, Mom", said Akuma.  
  
"And don't drool", Ryouko said to Kensuke.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Asuka was bored stiff by the forest. It wasn't that long a tour, just a  
walk down a path, but Akuma kept stopping every couple dozen feet to let Rei  
look at one thing or another. She was acting like she'd never seen birds, or  
wildflowers, or even fungus. Wonder Girl was slowing it down for everyone, and  
so was Akuma, by constantly trying to impress her. Asuka had even considered  
showing Akuma a great deal of fungus, at a two inch distance, and running away  
back to the house, but she was stopped by the sinking feeling that if she ran,  
everyone else would probably let her.  
  
She was very grateful when they finally turned back.  
  
"So, where to now?" asked Asuka.  
  
"We could go for a swim", answered Akuma.  
  
"I don't have a swimsuit, Devilman. I don't think anyone has a swimsuit.  
That's what happens when I visit someone else's house on two minutes notice."  
  
"So I'll take you back to get it. That'll be two more minutes."  
  
"No thanks. I'm not making this trip last any longer. All the peace and  
quiet here is driving me crazy. And I don't want to make Misato worry about  
where we are. Show us everything and then we can go."  
  
"If you're going to be like that, I can take you back right now. What do  
you think, Shinji?"  
  
"Umm... uhh..." stammered the boy. "I think Asuka can do what she wants.  
If she wants to go back there's no need to keep her here."  
  
Akuma nodded. "Wait here, everyone. It'll be just a min---"  
  
"You don't have to", answered Asuka. "I changed my mind."  
  
"What about Misato?" asked Shinji.  
  
"Oh, she's probably off drinking somewhere."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"So isn't this relaxing?" asked Ryouko, lazily floating just below the  
water's surface, her hair forming a blue tangle around her head. "What do you  
think of it all, Misato?"  
  
"It's amazing how you *hic* built this whole thing... and I love the free  
sake."  
  
"Well", said Ryouko, shrugging and sending miniature waves through the  
steamy water. "I made the baths using one of my mother's old devices. It  
seemed like a good idea at the time, so I put it in." She clicked a button,  
and a plate, carrying two small glasses filled to the rim, magnetically  
levitated itself out of some hidden place.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"All right, here's my grandmother Washuu's lab", said Akuma.  
  
It looks like a basement door, thought Asuka. "I thought you said it was  
impressive, Devilman."  
  
Touji reached for the knob. "Hold it", said Akuma.  
  
"What?" said Touji.  
  
"You have to knock first. Always knock first. And by the way, never agree  
to remove your clothes or participate in an experiment."  
  
"You have got to be kidding", said Asuka, as the door opened to a room that  
was far too lit, and far too large.  
  
A redhead woman, wearing a slick white lab coat, pivoted in her seat to  
greet the teenagers. "Hi guys! Come right on in."  
  
"I thought you had to knock first", said Touji.  
  
"You were making so much noise that I decided not to bother with trifles",  
answered Washuu. "Be glad I didn't just drop you on the floor. Now, where  
shall we start, Shinji?" She pointed directly at him, and Asuka saw his eyes  
widen slightly. Was she _flirting_ with Shinji? That was bizarre.  
  
"You're Akuma's grandmother?" asked Shinji.  
  
Washuu grinned at him. "Yup. Don't I look good for a grandmother? Now  
come on over here and let me..."  
  
Shinji bit his lip. But he took a step towards Washuu anyway. Good lord,  
did the boy have a suicide wish or something? The woman was supposed to be  
eccentric, so eccentric that Devilman even warned everyone first. Asuka  
imagined all sorts of twisted and perverted things that the woman might do.  
Letting her have her way with you would be only slightly less dangerous than  
stepping in front of a rampaging Angel.  
  
Akuma put his hand on Shinji's arm. "Wait." Shinji stopped.  
  
"Spoilsport", said Washuu.  
  
"What did you want, grandmother Washuu?" asked Akuma.  
  
"Oh, there is something else I want, but right now I wanted to see how  
eager Shinji is to follow orders. You really shouldn't do that automatically,  
Shinji; if someone asks you to do something, think about it, all right?"  
  
Shinji nodded.  
  
"Now, about that offer. There's something I'd like to try, and I think it  
would make you feel better." Yup, definitely flirting. "May I speak to you  
and Rei in private?"  
  
Shinji looked at Akuma and then back at Washuu with skeptical reluctance.  
  
"Playtime's over", said Washuu. "I'm not going to take you into another  
room and hang you on the wall or anything like that; my offer's completely  
serious." She bent over to whisper something into Shinji's ear.  
  
Shinji's mouth fell open and his eyes really widened. "You _can't_!" he  
said. What perverted suggestion did she give him?  
  
"Of course I can. Now, shall we go off to discuss it? You too, Rei?"  
  
Shinji nodded, dumbly, and walked off with Washuu. Rei followed along.  
  
Asuka looked at the door as it slammed shut, then looked back at Akuma,  
grimacing. "Beats me", he replied to her expression.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"That", said Akuma, "is an ecology monitor", indicating a small holographic  
display.  
  
"An ecology monitor?" wondered Touji.  
  
"Right. Basically, it sees how the life on a planet is doing. She has  
five of them, one for each one."  
  
Touji reached out to touch the device. Suddenly he was jolted by a small  
bolt of electricity. "Yoooooow!" he screamed.  
  
"Mustn't touch", said Washuu. She had entered the room again with Shinji  
and Rei, and was holding a small box with a bright red button taking up most  
of its top surface. From the looks of it, she had pressed the button at the  
exact moment when Touji touched the display.  
  
"Well, was Invincible Shinji hurt?" asked Asuka.  
  
"She didn't do anything to me", replied Shinji. He held a hand up to his  
eyes, which were far too red and wet, to wipe them.  
  
"You don't look like she didn't do anything to you. What about her  
so-called offer?"  
  
"I have to ask my father."  
  
"Give me a break, Shinji. We know how you and your father get along."  
  
"I'm not going to talk about it", said Shinji. "Most of it's private. And  
Asuka... believe me, you don't want me to tell you."  
  
"All right, no need to shout", said Asuka. "You tell me, Rei." Though she  
expected that Rei would stay silent and smug.  
  
She did.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma led the little group into the living room and made the rest of the  
introductions. "This is my sister Mayuka", he said. "Mayuka, these people  
are from school... Shinji, Asuka, Touji, Kensuke."  
  
The girl bowed. Kensuke, glimpsing her cleavage, drooled. Asuka guessed  
that a few inches closer, his nose would have been spurting blood.  
  
Kensuke profusely apologized. "Heh, heh." he added with embarassment.  
  
"My mother you've met... this is Dad, Great-Grandpa, and Aunt Sasami."  
Asuka eyed the other people whom Akuma introduced. "Nice to see you again",  
said Sasami to Rei, and hugged her. Rei smiled at Sasami and hugged her back.  
  
"All right", said Asuka. "What's going on here? Half of the people in  
this family have light blue hair and red eyes. And the way you and Rei are  
acting... is she some kind of distant relative? And... just _why_ is  
every woman in this family some kind of gorgeous model?"  
  
"I heard you were a bitch", said Mayuka. "Looks like I heard right.  
We're not related to Rei, and as for looks, you just need to grow so you can  
fill out your chest. Until then, shut up, okay?" The look on her face was  
slightly predatory, in a 'don't get in a fight like that with _me_' sort of  
way.  
  
Asuka fumed. But she did shut up.  
  
"Hey, everyone", said Sasami, "I hope you'll stay for dinner. It's my day  
to cook and there should be enough for everyone even with all the guests  
today."  
  
"Is she a good cook or bad cook?" whispered Asuka to Akuma. This was a  
very vital piece of information.  
  
"Good", whispered Akuma back.  
  
Sasami smiled friendily, which immediately made Asuka more suspicious of  
her, if only because few people acted like that without having something less  
friendly in mind.  
  
* * * * *  
  
That girl, thought Mayuka as Asuka kept making comments through the meal,  
seemed a bit like Aeka. But something was wrong; very wrong. Aeka knew when  
to stop, just like Mayuka did. She'd throw tantrums, but she'd never slack off  
doing her share of the chores; and when it came time to be with people she was  
supposed to be polite to, she stayed polite.  
  
On the other hand, Asuka just seemed out of control. It was as if  
yelling was one of the few ways she knew to deal with the world at all.  
  
"Asuka?" said Mayuka.  
  
"Yes? What do you want?"  
  
"I'm sorry if I was a little harsh with you."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said, I'm sorry if I was a little harsh with you."  
  
"Don't patronize me", said Asuka, and went back to eating, in silence this  
time.  
  
* * * * *  
  
So Asuka was wrong, thought Shinji. And he was right to trust Akuma. His  
family was strange... but he had a family. That alone made him a lot more  
normal than Shinji, no matter how many alien superpowers he had.  
  
"Akuma..." said Shinji a bit wistfully to his friend, who happened to  
be in the seat right next to him.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I'm glad your folks let us visit. I'm sorry Asuka was so noisy."  
  
"You're welcome", replied Akuma. "I know what you're thinking."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're thinking I have it easy."  
  
Shinji nodded. "Akuma, the worst thing that happens here is that your  
sister yells at someone who, I have to admit, deserves it anyway. The worst  
thing that happens to me is that I get abandoned. Did you know that I once  
tried to kill myself? I never even had the courage to do that."  
  
"Take it easy", said Ryouko.  
  
"What do you know about my life anyway?"  
  
"Mr. Ikari, I may not be you but I do know what despair is like. I spent  
thousands of years as a slave, to a man who claimed he created me--if you like  
comparisons, think of you and your father, but much worse. If I didn't kill  
myself then, it was only because I couldn't. Believe me, I understand your  
position."  
  
"Go ahead!" exclaimed Asuka. "Tell him to stop whining. Tell Shinji not  
to be a wimp."  
  
"I'm not going to do that", said Ryouko.  
  
"You're what?" yelled Asuka.  
  
"You, young lady", said Ryouko, "are a guest here. There will be no  
tormenting of other guests. And Akuma's friend here isn't a wimp. You have  
this idea that people can just wish themselves out of depression, and that if  
they don't, they're not worthy of being treated like a person. Nobody is  
unworthy of being treated like a person, Asuka." As Mrs. Masaki continued,  
Shinji became more and more perplexed. For some reason, the woman was  
defending him. Strange.  
  
"Do you talk to a lot of people like that?" asked Asuka.  
  
"No, I don't. We're a secret. I can't talk to _anyone_ except family.  
Until now, and I can see where Shinji is coming from far too well. As long as  
you're in our house, you're going to behave." Shinji half-expected her to  
shoot a blast of energy at Asuka for a warning shot, but she never did; it  
never got past the stage of harsh words.  
  
"If you keep lecturing me I'm, uh, I'm going to tell my mother."  
  
Shinji caught Ryouko's eye and then told her "No. She isn't." And... he  
probably should, anyway... "Thank you, Mrs. Masaki."  
  
* * * * *  
  
On the other side of Shinji was Rei. She ate quietly, of course; Rei was  
like that. She paid little interest in what was around her, and all those  
around her responded by doing likewise.  
  
Except for one. "Did you like the food, Rei?" asked Sasami. This evening  
was getting even odder, thought Shinji. First, that hug, and now, this.  
Sasami didn't just want to know what everyone thought of the tempura, she  
asked Rei specifically. Shinji recalled Rei's explanation of how she had  
survived the annihilation of Eva Unit 00... Sasami had something to do with it.  
  
"It was delicious", answered Rei.  
  
That response didn't seem to satisfy Sasami. "How are you?" she asked.  
"What have you been up to?"  
  
"Fine", responded Rei. "And I'm still going to school." The words left her  
mouth without much feeling, but as she continued to talk, she began to sound  
more and more normal. "I'm no use to Gendou now. I still clean his office and  
bring things for him, but I know that I'm not wanted for more than that. He  
doesn't seem to like me."  
  
"Rei", said Sasami, "You're here, you're alive, and that's what matters.  
About Gendou... you mean more than before, right?"  
  
"Yes. He acts like he's lost something. But sometimes he tries to pretend  
that he hasn't. I seem to scare him."  
  
"If you want to leave, Rei, you can always stay here for a while."  
  
"I can't leave. I'm going to be there until the end. But thank you for  
your offer, and for showing me what I could be."  
  
Akuma, half-listening, asked "Want to come over some other time when there  
aren't so many people here? Just to visit, not to stay."  
  
Rei smiled, for once. "I'll consider it."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Returning was another two minute trip for Akuma and Ryo-ohki. He let  
Touji and Kensuke off at the apartments, and dropped off Shinji and Asuka right  
outside Misato's.  
  
Asuka casually unlocked the door and entered. "Hello!" she shouted,  
without even checking to see if anyone was behind the door. Of course, there  
wasn't. Misato had been drinking far too much ever since the space aliens came  
and Asuka was even beginning to worry that she could do her body serious  
damage. She was probably passed out on her mattress.  
  
Finally, after Asuka had sat down to click on the television, Misato  
dragged herself out into the living room, drunk again (of course) just as  
Asuka had expected. "Hi kids..." she mumbled. "Found a real good drinking  
partner today..." she said as she staggered to the refrigerator.  
  
"That's better than drinking alone", said Shinji.  
  
Misato pulled out a plate of food and took it to the microwave. Asuka  
could sniff it as the microwaves reheated... wait! That smell was familiar.  
"Where did you get that from?" yelled Asuka.  
  
"Ry... Ryouko brought me here after I passhed out. She promised to bring  
shum... something to eat since I missed dinner..."  
  
"You were _there_! We were there and you were there and you didn't tell  
us!"  
  
"I was? Oh, did you have fun?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Visiting a farm, even one inhabited by space aliens, is not inherently very  
exciting, but it was enough to raise Shinji's spirits a bit. Until that  
moment... and now, on top of that, Shinji would have to confront his father  
again. This had all dropped into Shinji's lap, but the last step was Shinji's  
and Shinji's alone. He wasn't even sure if he was doing the right thing.  
  
"Hey, Akuma?" said Shinji.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"How much can I really trust your grandmother? Do you think that if she  
says she can do something she'll do it?"  
  
"Hm? Sure you can trust her, as long as it's not a joke of some kind.  
And as for what she can _do_... almost anything. It's about that offer from  
yesterday, right?"  
  
"Right. Exactly." Shinji bent over to whisper into Akuma's ear.  
  
"She's going to do that? I hope she knows what she's doing."  
  
* * * * *  
  
So now was the moment of truth. Shinji knocked on the imposing oak door.  
  
"Come in", said his father's voice. But when Shinji opened the door,  
Gendou's first reaction upon seeing Shinji was to reject him. "Oh, it's you.  
Come back some other time. I'm busy with some very important work here."  
  
Shinji's heart fluttered, but he persisted. If ever he needed courage, the  
time was now. "This is more important. Dad, I've met the people from outer  
space, that they say you should know about."  
  
"I'm aware of their existence." Gendou motioned towards the door.  
  
"It's about Mom. They told me what happened. I know she's not dead."  
  
From the look on Gendou's face, Shinji expected his glasses to fall off.  
Somehow that made Shinji feel better. His father wasn't completely shut off  
from the world. Things could affect him. "_What_ did they tell you about  
Yui? Tell me, son. What did they say?"  
  
"They said that she's not dead. She's trapped inside Unit 01. That's  
true, Dad, isn't it? They want to get her out, and they know how to do it."  
  
"She... do you believe all of that, Shinji?"  
  
"If it wasn't true you wouldn't have reacted like you just did!"  
  
"All right. Yes, it's true, Shinji. Understand, I loved your mother  
dearly. One day she went into the Eva, synchronized to several hundred  
percent, and never came out. Sometimes I wonder if she meant to be in there.  
Most of the project was her idea. And inside there, she would be able to  
participate in it in a way that she couldn't participate anywhere else."  
  
"What about Rei? Mom and that Lilith thing, right? And the truth behind  
the project? You're not saving us from the Angels, you want to beat them to  
their own goal."  
  
"Shinji", said Gendou, "I'm not going to try to lie to you. What you're  
telling me these people told you is true, but they had no right to say it. Can  
you honestly say that knowing any of that makes you feel better?"  
  
"I..." Gendou was right, after all. "No, it doesn't."  
  
"Do you understand now? I needed to keep you away from all the details.  
It was for your protection. If you knew that your mother was in the Eva, would  
you be willing to pilot it?"  
  
Wait a minute. "If I knew she was in there I'd be trying to get her out.  
And I'd never be willing to do something that would destroy the world."  
  
"And these aliens want to get her out, right?"  
  
"That's right."  
  
"And in exchange for that? I don't care how generous you think they are."  
  
"They want you to end the project. Work with them and fight SEELE."  
  
"And if I don't?"  
  
"You will. You did love Mom. You told me that before. You won't  
abandon her, like you abandoned me."  
  
"I never abandoned you, Shinji. You ran away, ten years ago."  
  
"I was four years old! How could a four year old run away unless his  
father wants to get rid of him?"  
  
"The fact is, I didn't. Now, I'll consider this offer, but you can tell  
your space people friends that it's not very likely. You don't understand the  
project, and they don't seem to either. It's an advancement! We're going to  
evolve the human race to a new level! If they said I was going to destroy  
the world, you don't know how wrong they are...."  
  
Shinji listened to Gendou's rant. It seemed like his father was becoming  
completely unhinged. Or maybe, his sanity had always been just another lie.  
  
For the second time in ten years, Shinji walked away from his father.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"He said 'no', Akuma."  
  
"How could he?" replied the boy. He couldn't talk much, because he was in  
the middle of a game of Street Fighter 14. Fortunately, his long experience  
doing things when split in two gave him the training to at least listen to  
Shinji.  
  
"I think I know, Akuma. He says he cared about Mom. I don't think he  
did. I think he cares about her memory. She died... got dissolved... and  
then for all this time he built up this big idea about what it really means  
to honor her and he's going to stick to it instead of helping her for real.  
If he released her _she'd_ tell him to stop the project. And I've been  
thinking about something else he said."  
  
"Hm?" replied Akuma, sending holographic 3D fireballs into the screen at  
the computer opponent.  
  
"The truth. He said it hurt me to know the truth. He was right, but...  
hiding the truth just makes it hurt more when it finally comes out. I said I  
wouldn't ever want to destroy the world like he does. And you know what? He  
said that I misunderstood it, but not that he wasn't going to do it. He does  
want to destroy the world. He's insane, Akuma, I finally realized that. It's  
not worth it to go on living for his approval. I need to do what I can for  
myself and my friends and the people who all depend on me."  
  
Akuma pummelled his computer opponent with Gouki's triple Dragon Punch as  
he nodded. "I've thought that since I met you, Shinji. You just needed to  
really realize it."  
  
"I know what I need to do now", said Shinji. "Your grandmother said she'd  
rather use it as a bargaining tool to stop the project, but if that wasn't  
possible she'd let me try it anyway. She said something about it being  
personal."  
  
"Personal?" replied Akuma while making the motions for a Hurricane Kick.  
  
"Something about never wanting to see a mother and son parted."  
  
"Ohh... you want to revive your mother all by yourself? You couldn't do  
it without any orders from Gendou. You couldn't run the equipment and the  
staff would notice anyone messing with it anyway." Akuma finished a 6 move  
combo, dizzying the computer player.  
  
"I could do it. If I tell Misato and anyone else I need to tell to get  
permission. Akuma, nobody wants to die. They'll _have_ to agree, they'll have  
to! If only they knew what my father really wants this project to do....  
Besides, Akuma, if I don't, someday your folks are going to come in, appear out  
of nowhere... and destroy the Eva just to save the world. And if I don't get  
Mom out of there first she's going to be dead for real!"  
  
"I wish you luck, Shinji", said Akuma.  
  
Shinji considered that, replaying the words in his mind to look for a  
strain of sarcasm, but finally understanding that Akuma really did mean it.  
"Thanks for listening", he replied. "Oh, hey", he added, "you beat someone's  
high score."  
  
"I did? Oh yeah. I didn't notice; it's hard to do two things at the same  
time _and_ watch the score. I wonder who 'DJC' is?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Gendou knew what he would do if he were in Shinji's position. He'd try to  
revive Yui without permission. Something which Gendou would love to do  
himself. But the project would have to go on.  
  
So there was a simple solution. Shinji would even participate, helping  
Gendou along without knowing it. If Gendou made the agreement, the aliens  
would come in, get Yui out, and then immediately destroy the Eva and everything  
else with full permission. But if Gendou didn't, Shinji would no doubt sneak  
in himself, do it anyway, and the aliens would continue to wait for whatever  
reasons--perhaps fear of unknown technology from SEELE, or perhaps just  
scruples against destroying a base full of people--had kept them from just  
annihilating everything before.  
  
No doubt the boy believed that Gendou didn't want Yui revived. But then,  
that wasn't the first mistake Shinji had made.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Misato?" asked Shinji.  
  
"Uh-huh?"  
  
"Do you have a minute?"  
  
"Of course I have a minute."  
  
"I... I need your help... really badly.... It's my mother."  
  
"What about her?"  
  
"You were there, right? At Akuma's house. You met his mother. How much  
did she tell you?"  
  
"A lot of things." Misato thought Shinji looked awfully agitated, though  
if he had learned even a fraction of what Misato had learned, it was completely  
understandable. "Shinji, if you want to know something, just ask."  
  
"I need your help to start up the Evas for a test. Only it's not a test.  
My mother's trapped in the Eva. They can use their outer-space technology  
to get her out. If we all get together and do it, I... I won't have failed  
any more."  
  
It was more than just understandable. Shinji had just gotten a chance to  
redeem himself... a complete miracle. He had to give up his passivity and do  
whatever he could to make it come true.  
  
And Misato had to help him. The whole project, she had learned, was a  
sham. They were killing the Angels... but not to save humanity. Gendou and  
SEELE were free to start their own Third Impact upon the death of all the  
Angels... or even by _using_ the death of the last Angel. Misato would  
eventually do what she could to stop them, but Sasami and the others would have  
a much easier time doing so.  
  
If she helped Shinji now, she might lose her job and her career and have  
to watch out for her life. But if Gendou's and SEELE's plan was stopped  
before the Third Impact, the same thing would happen to her anyway, just three  
weeks later. And if she helped Shinji now, she'd be saving a life, and  
depending on Yui's condition, she might be striking a real blow against the  
people responsible for the Impact that killed her father.  
  
"I'll do what I can, Shinji", she told him. "I'll need Ritsuko's help, but  
she already knows the truth. I think she'll help us. Ask me again tomorrow  
evening. By the way, have you decided anything about Asuka?"  
  
"Asuka?"  
  
"She doesn't know what really happened to her mother. Did the Masakis tell  
you?"  
  
"Yes, they did. Oh my god I still have to... But... but if I tell her  
she'll be upset, worse than she is now. But I also don't want to see her live  
a lie like me... Misato, do you think I should tell her?"  
  
"I don't know. I don't know myself, either. Tell me if you ever think of  
anything, okay?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Ritsuko, I need to talk to you", said Gendou.  
  
"I... go ahead" she replied.  
  
"You know about the project. I've told you lots of things that I've never  
told anyone else."  
  
"Yes? Commander, I..."  
  
"I've told you that when we're alone you can just call me Gendou. Anyway,  
it's Shinji. He's gotten help from those aliens you met. He's going to  
release Yui."  
  
"You still love her?"  
  
"Ritsuko, there will always be something in me that remembers when she and  
I were together, but I need her for the project. It was a mistake for her to  
become a component of a machine. I just need you to not interfere, even to  
subtly encourage whatever he tries."  
  
"I understand", said Ritsuko. "I'll do whatever's necessary."  
  
Gendou briefly kissed Ritsuko. "Goodbye."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Really? She'll work with it?" asked Shinji.  
  
"Sure", replied Misato. "Ritsuko said she'd be glad to help. We have  
access tomorrow at 8 PM until the morning. Is that enough?"  
  
"Uhh... I think so. I never did anything like this before...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
A skeleton crew, barely large enough to do an Eva test, assembled in the  
Geofront at night. Misato gave the orders, and the staff handled the  
equipment. Shinji watched.  
  
"Shouldn't Shinji be getting into his suit?" asked Maya.  
  
"No, not for this test", replied Ritsuko. "We have some special  
requirements. Shinji's not going to be in this Eva. There are a few additions,  
but they've already been installed."  
  
"Starting..." said a technician.  
  
"Mental pattern appearing... separating... what is this?" said another,  
while Shinji paced. Was this going to work?  
  
"This is impossible!" said Maya.  
  
"It's not impossible", said Misato. "That's Shinji's mother in there. She  
was lost inside Unit 01 ten years ago... and now she's been found. With this  
new technology, it should be possible to disentangle her patterns from the base  
of the Eva's patterns even though she's been in there over ten years. And Rei  
provided a copy of her genetic structure."  
  
"Pattern separate..." said a technician. Shinji paced even more. "It's  
working... there's definitely someone in there."  
  
"It's working... she's alive!" yelled Shinji.  
  
"Not so fast", replied Misato. "We still need more time.... Just a bit  
longer."  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Maya pressed the controls to release and open the  
entry plug from Unit 01. A woman, looking just like she did in the memories  
of everyone who could recall her, stepped out wearing the fashions of ten years  
ago, and a shining metal GEHIRN badge.  
  
"Why is she wearing clothes?" whispered Maya.  
  
"It's a theory", replied Misato. "The pilot's self-image is capable of  
creating clothing to correspond to it."  
  
"Mom!" yelled Shinji. "It's really you! You look like Rei... but I  
remember you. You look so familiar. What was it like? Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine", she said, and walked over to hug Shinji. "I know what's going  
on, I got it from your mind during all those tests you had inside. I suppose  
exactly where I am no longer matters, and I suppose it's nice to see Gendou in  
the flesh for one last time. Even with all that has happened the  
Complementation project to evolve humanity can still go on...."  
  
"The project? But you were trapped in there! I wouldn't have wanted to  
be trapped in a machine for ten years. Even after Dad did that to you, you  
still want to finish the project? Mom, please...."  
  
"Gendou? No, I trapped myself. It was my way to be sure that the project  
and myself could not be separated."  
  
"B-- but Mom, you couldn't want to destroy the world. You couldn't! You're  
a good person! I know it, you have to be!"  
  
"Don't worry, Shinji, it's not some kind of evil thing. All of humanity  
will be one, and me, you, and Gendou will all be together...."  
  
Suddenly, Gendou opened and stepped in through the supposedly locked   
corridor door. "Welcome home, Yui." He seeemed genuinely happy, for once.  
"Nothing can stop us now."  
  
"Dad! You knew!" exclaimed Shinji.  
  
"Of course I knew", replied Gendou. "Yui was the one that got me  
interested in the project, not the other way around. Did you really think I  
wouldn't want her brought back? No, I knew that your alien friends wouldn't  
bring her back for me without wanting something, but they might bring her back  
for you. You've been a great help, Shinji."  
  
Gendou motioned over to Yui to come to him, and she approached.  
  
"No", said Ritsuko.  
  
"What?" said Gendou, surprised.  
  
"You've loved her. You've always loved her, nobody else. I hate you, did  
you know that? I hate you and what you stand for and I realized that last  
night." Ritsuko pulled out a pistol, cocked it, and aimed it towards the two  
as everyone else watched in astonishment.  
  
Yui reached into her own pocket and brought out another pistol, aiming back  
at Ritsuko. Before Ritsuko could figure out how someone who had just stepped  
out of an Eva could have a working firearm on her person, Yui had fired. The  
bullet hit Ritsuko in the chest--Yui was an excellent shot--and blood geysered  
out.  
  
But in Ritsuko's death throes, her fingers convulsed. The gun in her hand  
went off before she fell to the ground. Gendou, its target at the time, took  
the bullet in the chest and collapsed to the ground soon afterwards.  
  
END CHAPTER 7.  



	8. Therefore Choose Life

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 8  
"Therefore Choose Life"  
  
  
It was done. Sympathizing for Shinji, a mother who lost her own son twenty  
thousand years ago had given Shinji a gift. With this gift, he and NERV had  
liberated his mother from a decade of captivity in the Evangelion units. The  
nagging irrational doubt in his mind, that somehow he was responsible for his  
own mother's loss, had finally been silenced.  
  
And then everything had gone wrong. Shinji's mother had betrayed him; she  
not only still loved his father, which Shinji could understand to some extent,  
she was completely on his side. Her one overriding desire when she merged  
into that plug had been to complete the project, and even after ten years none  
of that dedication had lessened. She spent half her time far away in the  
complex, probably working with that secret committee. And the rest of her time  
she spent in his father's hospital room. Ten years had passed, and she  
couldn't afford to spend more than five minutes on her son.  
  
If that had happened a few months before, Shinji would have retreated into  
his room, closed the door, and stared at the wall until the need for food or  
sleep finally distracted him, or until Asuka or Misato would come by to pull  
him out of his self-loathing state. But times had changed. Despite Shinji's  
father and now, despite his mother, NERV was not a bad place. Shinji had  
friends, he had people who cared about him, and while his father was no nicer  
close up than far away, Shinji was slowly beginning to understand that Gendou  
was a driven man, not someone who just tormented Shinji out of personal sadism.  
Being at NERV allowed Shinji to heal, and barring a relentless series of  
personal disasters, eventually insured that he would.  
  
"I'm here to see my father", Shinji told the blue-suited guard. "Ikari  
Gendou. He was shot a few days ago."  
  
Shinji wasn't certain what he'd do if the guard didn't let him in. Be firm  
and insist, or just run away in relief that he didn't have to go through with  
it. The guard, though, just looked him up, explained "He's in room 305. Sign  
in and go see him", and waved Shinji on through after he signed the visitor  
list.  
  
Shinji opened the door and dropped a get-well card down next to his  
father's prone, white-gowned form. "Here", he said, ready to leave if the man  
woke up.  
  
"Hello Shinji" said the voice of his mother. Shinji now noticed she was  
standing on the window side of the hospital room.  
  
Just glancing over at her reminded Shinji that she was there almost  
constantly, and brought forth, once again, the realization that memory is a  
funny thing. Because the mother that he thought he remembered would never stay  
with Shinji's father for so long while ignoring Shinji himself. But then, he  
didn't really remember a lot. All that he had were a few impressions and  
flashes. He had built himself a fantasy because of his father's rejection,  
and now, he was having his nose rubbed in just how wrong he was.  
  
"Hello", said Shinji. With his last remaining bit of hope, he greeted  
her. "Mother? I missed you all these years."  
  
"I suppose I've been a terrible disappointment to Gendou and you."  
  
"You really love Dad, don't you?"  
  
"We've worked very closely together, Shinji" she replied. "Even though  
you used to be too young to understand. Oh, and thank you for bringing me  
out of the Eva. That insane woman Ritsuko could have shot Gendou any time,  
and if he's in this condition I am the only other one who can make sure the  
project works as we want it...."  
  
The hope fizzled out and died. There was no mistake any more. "What about  
me? Don't you love me?"  
  
"Of course I do."  
  
"Why did you abandon me ten years ago, Mom?   
  
"He told you. You ran away from him. And he allowed it, because it let  
you stay safe."  
  
"That's not what I'm talking about!" yelled Shinji. "Not him, you. If you  
went into the Eva on purpose you _knew_ that I'd be growing up without a  
mother. You're as bad as he is."  
  
"It's only temporary, Shinji. We're going to create a new world where we  
can be together in a much better way. You may think you had to sacrifice a  
lot, but so did we. Tell me, if you think you suffered so much, could you have  
discarded your body never knowing if and when you'd get it back, like I did?  
Could you have worked with SEELE and lived under the threat of a bullet in the  
back if you didn't play them off against each other in just the right way,  
like your father did? It's been hard on all of us, Shinji."  
  
"It's different when you accept pain that you've made, and when you force  
it onto someone else. You never asked me if I wanted to have this instead of a  
real family."  
  
"Shinji", said his mother, "you need to understand. You have this idea  
that you can't do everything you want, and that adults can. Your father and I  
can't just choose things any more than you can. If I could press a button and  
unite the world without affecting you, I gladly would. But I can't. Your  
father can't. So stop thinking of yourself all the time and consider us for a  
change."  
  
"You don't consider anyone else! Did you even ask if anyone in the world  
wanted to be 'united'?"  
  
"Stop that", mumbled Gendou through the respiratory tube in his mouth.  
A hospital buzzer was located on a table near the bed; he reached upwards for  
it, with a still-gloved hand.  
  
"Shinji is right", said a voice very much like Yui's, from outside. And  
then, through the door--literally, through the door--stepped a ghostly  
apparition of Rei, wearing her usual schoolgirl uniform but making no sound or  
even vibration.  
  
"The guards had strict orders not to let..." murmured Gendou as his hand  
fell away from the button.  
  
Yui instinctively reached into her pocket for her gun, but stopped, quickly  
realizing that it would be worse than useless.  
  
"I didn't pass the guards", responded Rei. "I came here in my own way  
because I knew that Shinji was visiting and I wanted him to have company. It  
is hard for him to even bring you a card, let alone talk, because you treat  
him like you treat me."  
  
"Rei, this is a private family matter", said Yui. "Please go."  
  
"She deserves to be here", said Shinji. "You know how she was created.  
From you, and by Dad. If there is anyone who deserves to be here, it's her."  
  
"No", replied Yui. "It's more private than that. You weren't supposed to  
know all there was to know about the project, Shinji. You, and Rei, were both  
supposed to help. You've gotten far more involved and far more hurt than you  
should be, because of that alien influence...."  
  
"That 'alien influence', Mom", answered Shinji, "is more human than you  
and Dad have been acting! All they want to do is live here. But you... I  
loved you! Losing you meant everything! And now you're back and not only do  
you not care, you don't even not care because of anything normal. How many  
boys have parents who ignore them because they would rather spend a few hours  
plotting to destroy the world?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"It's useless, Akuma", said Shinji. "Mom really is just like Dad, and  
today only made that clearer. I went in there to give Dad a get-well card and  
I ended up arguing... I don't know what I'm going to do. I only have one set  
of parents."  
  
"I'm all out of advice", replied Akuma. "All I can suggest is that you  
try to live making the best of what you've got. You know, when I first met you  
I thought it would be easy for me to help you to open up a little bit more.  
Now I realize it's something you had to do yourself, like Mom did. I think  
you've pretty much done it. What's left... is just life."  
  
"I guess it's one thing I've learned, Akuma. It's not me that's worthless.  
It's them. I'm going to have to stay with Misato until I'm 18... I hope I can  
get into a good college."  
  
"See? How many times did you ever think about college three months ago,  
Shinji?"  
  
"Umm. Not a lot", replied the boy. "Not at all. Maybe you're right."  
  
Akuma nodded.  
  
"Then there's Rei. I don't know how to think of her. She's related to me  
but in a weird way... how do you do that in your family?"  
  
"In my family? Let me see, Mayuka was created with genetic material from  
my Dad, so she's his daughter... Minagi was created with genetic material from  
my Mom, so she's her sister... You know, I don't think we have any rules for  
that, Shinji. We just do it by ear. If you go by ages, she's your sister."  
  
"But she's really that thing on a cross in a cave full of bloody juice.  
Akuma, this is all completely beyond my experience."  
  
"Don't worry, Shinji" said Akuma. "My great-aunt is a tree. It doesn't  
affect us as much as you'd think."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Funny, thought Shinji as he plunged a tangle of tofu-laced ramen into his  
mouth. It was supposed to be suicides who try to clear up all the loose ends  
in their life. But now that Shinji wasn't constantly wishing to end his own  
life, he'd been going at the loose ends with a vengeance. He had given up on  
seeking his father's approval. He had learned the truth behind NERV and the  
Human Complementation Project. And now, he had helped restore his mother to  
life, and understood why she had gone.  
  
Now would come one of the harder loose ends to resolve. When Shinji  
confronted his mother with her poor treatment of him, it was ultimately, not  
about her alone, but about his relationship with her. It was his own feelings  
which drove him to talk back instead of taking everything silently, and what  
little catharsis he might have wrung from that act steadied his own heart.  
But telling Asuka about her mother required a different sort of courage; not  
the courage to stand up for oneself, but the courage to keep up with difficult  
responsibilities. He had to tell Asuka, because that was the right thing to  
do, even though telling her would make both her and himself miserable.  
  
Shinji put down his chopsticks. "Asuka? Misato?" he queried. They were  
both still eating their ramen. "There's something I have to tell Asuka. You,  
er, didn't tell her about it already, Misato?"  
  
Misato thought, no doubt trying to remember just what Shinji was referring  
to, then shook her head.  
  
"Hey, what is this?" said Asuka. "It had better be good, Idiot Shinji.  
I'm pretty hungry."  
  
"Oh, believe me, it's pretty good", replied Shinji. "You won't like it,  
though. Your mother's dead. Recently."  
  
"Oh", said Asuka. "I'm so disappointed." Shinji couldn't tell how much of  
that was real, how much was sarcasm, and how much of the sarcasm was bluster.  
"So it's another trip to the foster parent agency for me...."  
  
"Your real mother, Asuka."  
  
"WHAT?" yelled Asuka, spraying tiny drops of broth everywhere.  
  
"My mother was stuck in the Eva. Your mother's soul was stuck in yours.  
That's why she went nuts. It's a little hard to be sane without a soul."  
  
"Idiot Shinji, my Eva's gone. Kaput. It got destroyed by the 14th Angel."  
  
Shinji nodded. "Yes."  
  
"You're sick, Idiot Shinji. Sick sick sick. To even say something like  
that."  
  
"He's right", said Misato. "We didn't know about it until the Juraians  
told us."  
  
"Asuka", said Shinji. "It's hard enough for me to have to tell you this at  
all. I didn't have to, you know. I'm doing you a favor. Do you think Dad  
would have told you? _He_ knew all along."  
  
"No", said Asuka. Tears began to seep out of her eyes. "You're right, he  
wouldn't... Is it really true?" The haunted look on Shinji's face was all  
the answer Asuka needed. "They betrayed me! NERV killed her, they put her in  
that machine, they must have lied to me a dozen times... if only I had known."  
  
"If only you had known you'd have done what?" asked Shinji.  
  
"I don't know! But maybe I could get them to get her out of there somehow.  
They could give her a body... they made Rei, didn't they? It's not fair!  
You're telling me NERV ruined our entire lives all for this... secret plot."  
  
At least she's not blaming me, thought Shinji. "Yes I am", he said  
dejectedly. "We don't really matter. They don't care about us. It's like  
my Dad, and my Mom, thought it was so much fun to hate me that they decided  
that everyone should be that way."  
  
"You're whining again!" yelled Asuka.  
  
Shinji looked at Asuka.  
  
"After this we do have the right, don't we, Idiot Shinji. Funny, I  
accepted I wasn't ever going to be a pilot again... and now I find out I  
should have never wanted to be in the first place." She dumped her remaining  
ramen in the sink and went off. A low sobbing could be heard coming from her  
bed all that night.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misato stood over the final resting place of Akagi Ritsuko and tossed a  
pebble on top. "Goodbye, Ritsuko", she said.  
  
"Goodbye, Ritsuko" said Kaji a moment later, putting his arm around Misato  
in an attempt to comfort her.  
  
As the funeral ended and the mourners began to file out, Sasami approached  
the two. "I never thought I'd be seeing someone in our class die so soon. It  
was a terrible waste."  
  
"Another NERV death", said Misato. "You know, I don't even care that she  
brought it on herself by shooting Gendou. He deserved it... he deserved having  
his manipulation of people backfire on him for once. My father died because of  
that man.... I've got to get out of this, I'm involved too deep."  
  
"Hey", said Kaji. "We're all involved by far too much. The IID just got  
orders to completely stop investigating the SEELE case. They must have found  
out about us... if they weren't there behind us all along. I'm afraid too.  
I keep wondering how long it's going to be before everyone becomes like poor  
Ritsuko in there."  
* * * * *  
  
"Incoming! Angel attack!" announced the loudspeaker. "Would pilots  
Ikari Shinji and Masaki Akuma please report to the command center... Repeat,  
Angel attack...."  
  
I didn't know I was a pilot again, thought Akuma as he left the room.  
"Well, Shinji", he said, "it's another one. This one, and then one more, and  
then the Angels are gone. You still going through with it? You could always  
say no. Your mother could pilot it, and I don't think they'd let her dissolve  
this time."  
  
Shinji shrugged and pointed in the sky. "Look, up there", he said. "That  
ring of light... the Angel, I'm sure. If I don't stop it, it's going to come  
into the dome and this base and maybe the whole planet are going to go up in  
fire and dust and rainstorms of LCL. It's going to kill Asuka, and Misato, and  
Kensuke and Touji and me and probably you... I have a responsibility. I can't  
just pass it to someone else."  
  
"You don't want to do it any more, do you, Shinji?"  
  
"No, I don't, Akuma."  
  
"I'll see you there at NERV", said Akuma. "Maybe."  
  
"You're not coming?" asked Shinji. "With your powers...."  
  
"My parents are a lot more powerful than me" replied Akuma. "NERV might  
want me to fight, but Mom and Dad don't. It wouldn't make any sense for me to  
go and endanger my life. I'm just a kid like you, Shinji. It's good to be  
independent, but in this case, it's an exception. Bye." Akuma winked out  
of existence.  
  
  
* * * * *  
  
SEELE's newest member was also its oldest. Ikari Yui had returned. She  
sat between the slabs with the highest and lowest numbers, her seat raised so  
that nobody could mistake her for any unfortunates who might find themselves  
on the floor inside that circle.  
  
"So you've found the seventeenth Angel?" asked Yui. "You've thought so  
before. The consequence of that mistake was catastrophic. My husband is  
bedridden; we're faced with a threat of unknown power; most of the Units at  
NERV were destroyed; and Rei has gone rogue."  
  
"There is no mistake", said black slab 05. "He's quite willing to work  
with us, and we already have his cell samples."  
  
"Send him in" replied Yui.  
  
The boy they brought in looked somewhat like Rei, his eyes red and his hair  
the color of a fluorescent light. His gait was far too confident to be that of  
a fourteen year old boy led into a place full of strange, mechanized, voices.  
  
"Hello" said Yui. "I haven't had the pleasure of an introduction. I am  
Ikari Yui, Advisor Emeritus to the SEELE Central Committee."  
  
"I am Nagisa Kaworu" he replied, bowing. "I have also been called Tabris."  
  
"You are the last Angel?"  
  
"I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end."  
  
"You have been informed of our offer?" she asked.  
  
"I have been informed. In a week, you will enroll me at NERV as the Fifth  
Child, to replace this Lilim named Shinji. I will wait until the appointed  
moment, and then I will make my way down to the body of Adam for reunion."  
  
Very trusting boy, thought Yui. Too bad for him that he doesn't understand  
quite enough things about us 'Lilim', such as suspicion. For instance, he  
never bothered to ask just why the week's delay, or why he was supposed to go  
and do it himself by sneaking in, when the easiest way would be for one of  
SEELE--who could go anywhere they want--to just bring him there. The reason,  
of course, was that the week delay let them finish cloning the dummy system  
for the Mass Production Evas, and that the sneaking in was so that SEELE was  
unoccupied and could direct the new Impact from afar.  
  
"Excellent", replied Yui. "There is one other suggestion, but it's not  
part of any deal. it's just a suggestion."  
  
"What is it, Ms. Ikari?"  
  
"Drop the 'Lilim' word. It doesn't make any sense to pretend to be one of  
us and then use phrases like that; any halfway-bright NERV scientist would  
figure things out instantly."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Ten intermediate jumps afterwards, Akuma teleported into the house, and  
proceeded to fly through it in search of any human (or humanoid) presence.  
Stairs, ceilings, and walls were no barrier. But the only one he could find  
was Sasami, who was sitting on the couch perusing a photograph of some black  
spherical thing. "Hi... you're back from the funeral, I see..." he said.  
  
"Oh, hello Akuma. What did your Dad tell you about keeping your shoes on  
indoors? Just because you're floating is no excuse, you know."  
  
"Please!" said Akuma. "Aunt Sasami, it's an emergency. We just got  
word of another Angel attack. We need everyone's help to destroy it. I don't  
know if Shinji and I can do it ourselves...."  
  
"I'll be ready right away... anyway, your Dad and Mom are over in the Dark  
Dimension helping to install light fixtures. Don't worry, Washuu did make a  
way to contact them in case of Angel attack." Sasami reached under the couch,  
only to pull out a big red button. The button had an air of familiarity about  
it; Akuma suspected that Washuu had purchased them in bulk. Sasami pressed the  
button. "Now, let's wait", she told her grand-nephew.  
  
"What's that picture?" asked Akuma. "The big black thing?"  
  
"Oh, it's nothing..." explained Sasami. "There was just something familiar  
about this. The Black Moon, I know I saw it before, but I can't seem to put my  
finger on exactly where."  
  
Tenchi, Ryouko, and Mayuka appeared, bathed in the light of a glowing gem  
illuminating them from its position on the floor. "Mom? Dad?" said Akuma.  
"You have to go get the Angel. Shinji's going to be in real trouble if you  
don't...."  
  
"Where is it?" asked Ryouko.  
  
"Right by NERV. It's this huge glowing ring in the sky."  
  
"All right. That Angel is as good as dead. You'd better get back to  
school. We love both of you. Bye Mayuka, bye Akuma." Ryouko put her arm  
around Tenchi, took Sasami's hand, and they all disappeared.  
  
Mayuka looked at Akuma.  
  
"Um. It isn't my fault. Really." said Akuma apologetically.  
  
"Oh, I know. Want to do some sword practice before they get back?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
The Angel transformed from a ring of light into a circular double helix and  
then began to fire a beam. Maya speculated that the beam was a mental probe,  
but verification of that theory would forever elude her; the Angel did not  
survive long enough for her to find out. Tenchi, Ryouko, and Sasami had  
planned their fight for maximum efficiency. They put up shields before ever  
approaching the Angel, and used their strongest attacks immediately rather than  
saving them for the last minute like a sentai team trying to maximize its toy  
sales.  
  
The floating double helix flared out as brightly as the sun, and then  
exploded into a cloud of disappearing sparks.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The Eva's viewscreen showed Shinji the Angel accompanied by three miniscule  
human figures. Their own bodies blazed with energy, aimed to kill the invader.  
Shinji watched the heavens glow momentarily, followed by an explosive roar.  
The Angel was gone now; all that was left of the battle scene was three figures  
englobed in light. Then those too vanished.  
  
As the entry plug was removed from the Eva and he coughed up syrupy LCL and  
stepped onto solid ground again, Shinji considered the situation. One more  
Angel was dead; there were two left. The ancient experiment whose loose ends  
were left for the twenty-first century human race to clean up, the experiment  
Shinji's parents wouldn't even tell him about, would soon come to an end.   
Soon? No, it wouldn't soon end. It had already ended. Shinji hadn't taken  
more than a step in his Eva this time.  
  
"It's over", he told Misato. "I didn't do anything... _they're_ taking  
care of the problem. We have two more to go, and then...."  
  
"One more to go, Shinji. Last week there were some odd AT Field readings  
from orbit. We found an Angel there, out of reach of anything we could send  
at it. We found it when it was just waking up. We found it when it died."  
  
"Oh. What happens when it's over, Misato? It's not the Angels we have to  
worry about any more, it's SEELE... do you think the aliens will take care of  
them?"  
  
"I don't know" she replied. "They want to. I know Ryouko wants to,  
anyway. Anybody who knows what they're really up to would have to. But  
they're secret. You can't just go in and blast them to bits without knowing  
where they are. And if SEELE can find a way to start the Third Impact without  
anybody knowing until it happens, then we've all lost, aliens or no aliens.  
We need to keep alert and watch for that. But the first thing we need to watch  
out for is our own safety. Shinji, what is it that usually happens when the  
government really doesn't want some people around who know too much?"  
  
"They get rid of us... Misato, are they going to kill everyone?"  
  
"I hope not."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Why are they still alive?" asked Yui.  
  
"There's been a problem", grated monolith 05. A computer screen lit itself  
up on Yui's chair and began to play a video. "This message", that voice  
explained, "was received five days ago, along with a forty page manuscript."  
  
A bright and happy animated scene of dancing cabbits and crabs, drawn all  
in pastels, filled the terminal screen.  
  
"The first two minutes was like this", boomed out another monolith. "The  
content appears later on." Somewhere, whatever intelligence manifested through  
that black slab did what it needed to speed the transmission, and the animals  
whizzed around in fast-forward mode until Yui reached the start of the message  
itself.  
  
"And now that you've all relaxed for a bit", said a redhead female  
scientist, "here's the scoop. We know some things. They are printed in the  
famous award-winning 'A Guide to NERV and SEELE', which may never be available  
at a retailer near you. Unless, of course, any strange things happen to any  
of the people we've told about you, in which case ten television stations,  
prime ministers, and other people whom you might not want reading this book  
will be receiving copies gratis. Twenty if anyone dies outright under  
suspicious circumstances. You see, we're not out for justice. We really  
don't care if you retire to Argentina... as long as you leave everyone alone."  
  
"The book", explained a faceless voice, "had a description of NERV, SEELE,  
GEHIRN, the Second Impact, an accurate analysis of its true causes, and an  
explanation of Angels, Evas, Adam, Lilith, the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls  
including parts we haven't even found, as well as a short list of third world  
military interventions instigated by SEELE. It even mentions the Madagascar  
incident."  
  
"They're toying with us", said Yui. "We need to finish the project as  
suddenly as we can. If we do it right, by the time the aliens become aware,  
it'll all be over anyway. Tabris may be our best hope now."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misato's kitchen was small, barely a table and refrigerator. Asuka opened  
the fridge and took her dinner plate out. Misato hadn't even cooked this day;  
Asuka bet she was spending time getting sloshed with her good buddy from outer  
space. Asuka could hardly believe Misato would trust someone like that.  
  
Shinji was already sitting at the table staring at a tangle of yellowish  
noodles. "Hello Asuka." he said.  
  
"Feeling sorry for yourself, Idiot Shinji?"  
  
"You're a jerk, Asuka" he replied.  
  
Oh, man, thought Asuka. Shinji's gone nuts. "What?"  
  
"I said, you're a jerk. Suppose I am feeling sorry for myself. So?"  
  
"So...?" Shinji didn't get it. "So don't! Idiot Shinji, your parents are  
still alive. If there's anyone who has a right to whine, it's me. And I  
don't."  
  
"No?"  
  
"You're not trying to make fun of me, are you?"  
  
"Asuka, ever since you got here you've been yelling, screaming, trying to  
compete on the most ridiculous things, and generally making my life a living  
hell. It's not right, and I'm going to ask you to quit it. We're supposed to  
be getting along."  
  
"Come on, Idiot Shinji, it..." Wait. Asuka figured it out. This was some  
kind of gag. Maybe Rei put him up to this... that must be it. Rei would never  
act this way herself, so somehow she conned Shinji into doing it. "It's not  
funny. I don't take orders from you."  
  
"Who do you take orders from?"  
  
"Ah... Kaji! I take orders from Kaji!" Asuka served herself some extra  
ramen. The source was the bowl that Shinji had put in the center of the table.  
  
"He's got a girlfriend. Asuka, I'm trying to change now. Too much of  
what I've based my life on is wrong. I could have gone forever thinking my  
mother was this pure angel who would never have liked what my father is like  
now, but she's not. Not unless it means the kind of angel that likes to  
destroy the human race. I believed that for ten years... but it wasn't true.  
I need to face reality, Asuka. And so do you."  
  
Not a very funny joke. Maybe Asuka's first thought was right; Shinji was  
going nuts. "I do not."  
  
"When's your mother's funeral, Asuka?"  
  
"You are so unfair!" yelled Asuka and left with her food plate. A moment  
later she returned just long enough to grab a beer can before making her way  
out again.  
  
* * * * *  
  
There wasn't going to be any funeral, of course. The fact that not all of  
Soryuu Kyouko Zeppelin had died ten years ago was a secret once shared only by  
those with a need to know. Those evil bastards at SEELE and NERV only had one  
idea of "need", and Asuka didn't fit it.  
  
Asuka knew better than to assume that just because she had found out, any  
of that would change. There was no way NERV would announce one of their  
biggest mistakes just to be sure that a dead woman they screwed over would be  
remembered as she should be.  
  
But Asuka didn't have to obey that. Nobody else might care, but she did.  
She knew what had happened to her mother now. She could remember her properly,  
no matter who else wanted to forget her.  
  
Asuka kneeled down to her mother's grave and placed a bouquet of white  
carnations by the tombstone. She thought her mother liked white... even  
though it was so long ago that Asuka could hardly remember. She should like  
white anyway.  
  
"Mom", said Asuka, "I never knew you much. Thanks to the project, I  
didn't get a chance. They broke you into pieces, they made you reject me,  
reject life. I thought you had failed me because I had failed you... now I  
know the truth. You were killed, killed by the same people we both trusted for  
so long. I wonder how much you saw of me... how much you were aware of,  
whatever of you was still alive inside that machine. If you could see me grow  
up. If I was ever able to make you proud of me. I hope you weren't  
embarrassed too much when me and Idiot Shinji had our fights....  
  
"And I hope that somehow you can hear me. We never really believed in God  
or the supernatural, but I don't have to believe. Now I know. There has to be  
such a thing as a soul, because NERV found it. They found yours, and locked it  
up until you broke down. At least if you can't be alive now, you're no longer  
inside that cage, and I'm no longer your unknowing jailor. I like to think  
your soul would wait for the last goodbye before going off somewhere.  
  
"Goodbye, Mom. I miss you... I really do... I'll do whatever is needed  
now, even if I don't know what that is yet... and you can finally rest in  
peace."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Hey, girl" said a familiar voice as Asuka got up to leave. She looked  
over her shoulder, and there stood Kaji and Misato. Of all the lousy... why  
was he _here_? She liked him. She liked being around him... at any other  
time. Was he spying on her?  
  
"Hi", replied Asuka. "Why are you here?"  
  
"I'm visiting my father's grave", said Misato. "Everything was destroyed  
at the South Pole, but they put his gravestone here. It's the only time I've  
ever been here knowing how he really died. And I'm stopping by Ritsuko's  
again. Kaji is accompanying me."  
  
"I... oh" answered Asuka. Yeah, oh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell  
at you. Did you... did you hear any of it?"  
  
"Hear?" answered Misato. "Oh, you must have been saying some kind of  
prayer. I didn't hear it, but I can guess what it was all about. That's your  
mother's grave."  
  
"I could never lay her to rest for ten years" said Asuka. "But she's dead  
for real now."  
  
"By the way, Shinji's waiting outside."  
  
"Shinji? What's Idiot Shinji doing here? I need to have a word with him.  
Er, excuse me, Misato, Mr. Kaji."  
  
Misato and Kaji looked at each other and walked onwards. Asuka, on the  
other hand, ran back to give the boy a piece of her mind.  
  
"Hi" he said.  
  
"Idiot Shinji! Don't tell me you came here to see your mother's grave like  
Misato and her father."  
  
"I'm not", replied Shinji. "I was just wondering if you wanted me to walk  
home with you. This wasn't something I should have rubbed your face into."  
  
"You came all the way here for that, I suppose this is one of those 'we're  
all suffering so let's suffer together' kind of things, right?"  
  
"Maybe. I don't know." replied Shinji. "I can go if you want me to."  
  
"No, Idiot Shinji. You're coming with me."  
  
Shinji smiled slightly.  
  
"But don't think this means that I'm going to stop telling you when you're  
doing something that you need to get told about, Idiot Shinji!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Ayanami Rei watched the teacher and busily jotted down all the notes she  
could. By the time the final bell of the day rang she had several pages of  
material set aside for future study.  
  
She would need it to take the exams, after all. Exams were necessary in  
order to pass the class, and without passing the class there was no way to  
advance to a higher grade or ever get into a good college, and after that....  
  
Rei never really thought about it much. She didn't expect, or really want,  
to survive that long. Maybe she'd die on one of those missions Gendou sent her  
on in the Eva. And if not, one day he would finish the Instrumentality Project  
and call on her, and her true end would come then. Rei had welcomed that. It  
would be a release from a life that she didn't understand, that was spent  
acting towards goals that she didn't share.  
  
"I wish I could get up the nerve to ask her out" said Touji's distant  
voice. His gesture towards her made it clear that she was once again the topic  
of discussion. They thought she didn't notice. But she did. She just didn't  
care what happened to her in this life.  
  
"Are you kidding?" replied someone else's voice. "If she's going out with  
anyone it's Akuma and that only happened once.... Besides they say she's not  
really human... some kind of android built by Gendou. That's why she always  
does what he says."  
  
"Are _you_ kidding? When she was hurt she had bandages and everything...  
That's no android. She just doesn't like you very much, that's all."  
  
Enough. Sasami had made Rei believe that it is possible for there to be  
hope in life. Rei _did_ care, and if she was bothered by people talking in  
front of her face as if she didn't exist she would have to take it upon herself  
to tell them not to do it. "I'm not an android or a puppet", she said. "And  
if there is something you want to say to me, then say it. There is nothing  
wrong with my ears."  
  
"I'm sorry!" screamed the second boy, cringing a bit.  
  
"All r-right" said Touji with a stammer. "Willyougooutwithme?"  
  
Rei did like Akuma. He knew Rei's whole story and he didn't think any  
less of her. He couldn't, with his background. And he was related to Sasami.  
"No", replied Rei. "Because then Akuma won't ask me again."  
  
"Boy, are you out of luck, Touji" said the second teen. "She never talks  
except to say the word 'no' to you. Hey, Rei, funny you should start talking  
just for that, huh, huh?"  
  
"I am not only not a puppet, I'm also not a joke" replied Rei.  
  
"Hmph" interjected Asuka as she passed nearby. "We all get treated like  
that by guys, Wonder Girl. You just need to get used to it. It's life."  
  
"I don't understand life" replied Rei.  
  
"Gimme a break" said Asuka.  
  
"I mean it" said Rei. "I didn't want to live, so I didn't care how I did  
live. But now that I've changed my mind I see that I have a long way to go  
before I'd be like you."  
  
Asuka considered that. "Not being a doll is good. But you don't want to  
be me, Wonder Girl. Being me sucks."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misato, meanwhile, was relaxing in the world's only levitating onsen. Wisps  
of steam curled around her exposed chest and shoulders and head. The woman  
near her was sitting on the water nude, dangling her legs into it... but there  
was nothing under her behind to support her other than some heated water.  
  
"I really appreciate this, Ryouko" said Misato, downing the last of her  
beer. "It's a great place to drink."  
  
"Have some more?" said the cyan-haired alien. "It's free!"  
  
"Sorry... I have to work early tomorrow. They're bringing in another Child  
because they don't sink... think Shinji is reliable any more. I can't shake  
off the effects of the booze like you can. Sometimes I wish I could be like  
you and sit here whenever I want to...."  
  
"Well, I'm not here all day. There's Tenchi and the family and the ship  
and house and all that other shtuff... and Mayuka and Akuma used to keep me  
_really_ busy. But I figure, if I can come here, and I want to come here, why  
not?" She hiccuped, though the effects of the alcohol on her seemed to Misato  
to be, as always, surprisingly light. "You decided what you're gonna do when  
it all blows up... blows over?"  
  
"I don't know. Get a transfer. Write a book?"  
  
"Thatsh always good. I wrote a book once."  
  
"You don't strike me as a book writing type."  
  
"Well, I did! Oh, and why not marry Kaji? You seem to like each other."  
  
"If I did we'd have to talk about it and think about it... we just started  
seeing each other again... But look at me, I'm stuck with two kids and it's  
not even from another relationship."  
  
"It can't be that bad, Misato...."  
  
"Oh, it's not, really. It's just... they have issues. Them and Rei.  
They're sort of like me. NERV has been this big thing that's taken over our  
lives and there's just no way to escape it. Except by dying. Like Ritsuko."  
  
"I thought that for thousands of years, Misato... it isn't true. There's  
always a way out."  
  
"Maybe you're right... hey, if I can say 'maybe you're right' it can't be  
that bad, can it? It's getting worse for the bosses... there's this rumor  
going around that Ikari Yui has to relieve stress by masturbating over Gendou  
in the hospital. And you didn't need to do anything except kill some Angels  
and spread some information. NERV and SEELE are going out with a whimper...  
and for anyone who knows what they've done and what they want to do, that feels  
very good."  
  
Ryouko nodded.  
  
"The kids don't feel worthless any more. They've had bad lives... but  
they understand it now. They know it's not their fault, and they know that  
there's no way the people who ruined them can win. Maybe we have a chance  
after all."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Our chance to win", said Yui to the assembled multitude of voices. "We  
must prepare; the Fifth Child is ready." Simultaneously, Nagisa Kaworu was  
shown the way to his rather spartan quarters, and got ready to deliver the  
world to its future.  
  
END CHAPTER 8.  



	9. Gone, Gone, Form of Man

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 9  
Gone, Gone, Form of Man  
  
  
Ikari Yui sat by her husband's side in his hospital room, holding his hand  
in hers. Neither could recall which of the two had been more enthusiastic  
about the project at first, but by now, the project was their life's work,  
something they would sacrifice anything else for to meet their joint dream of  
shaping the future of humanity together. They would never be parted again;  
Gendou and Yui really did love each other.  
  
It was everyone else they had problems with.  
  
"He's here", said Yui. "The last Angel. Our chance... we'll be forever  
united, Gendou. Those old men at SEELE think they'll be able to control the  
Project, but they won't. Even without Rei... we planned this moment long  
before there was any Rei."  
  
"They don't realize that I have Adam in the palm of my hand", said Gendou  
from his bed. "In all senses. Complementation is going to draw in Adam's  
body, and Adam's body will be with us."  
  
"And Shinji wonders why we're together so much. I'm here so that when you  
go, I'll come with you. We shall follow the path together, Gendou dear...  
and the Instrumentality of Mankind will be ours and ours alone to direct."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Hello kids", said Misato to the gathered throng in her living room. Well,  
not a throng, really, just Akuma visiting. "Glad to see you're having fun."  
  
"We're doing _homework_", replied Asuka, looking up from a pencil, paper,  
and several brown-paper-covered textbooks. "And I'm going to finish before  
Devilman this time."  
  
"Like I said", continued Misato. "I'm glad to see you're having fun.  
Anyway, I just thought I'd mention this to all of you. There's going to be  
another Eva pilot."  
  
"Another pilot?" wondered Akuma. "That seems pretty weird. There's only  
one more Angel left."  
  
"It's not so weird", replied Shinji. "They don't trust me. I know too  
much, I've asked too many questions and said too many things. They want  
someone else who they can fool."  
  
"Don't be so cynical", complained Azusa. "Even if you might be right."  
  
"I checked his records", said Misato. "Kaworu Nagisa, age 14. Born in the  
fifth ward of Tokyo on September 28. Everything I could find out seems pretty  
normal. I had this idea he was an Angel...."  
  
"Yeah", replied Akuma, "but... Misato, if he was a fake of some kind, or  
an Angel, wouldn't SEELE make up some fake records about him, just so that when  
someone does what you're doing it'll come up okay? It's not as if they're dumb  
enough to leave him with no records and a birthday the same day as the Second  
Impact."  
  
"I don't know, Akuma. They didn't bother to cover up yours... and I know  
they're all real, but they certainly look fake."  
  
"Maybe we're all too paranoid", said Shinji. "Not everyone is like Mom and  
Dad... he's got to just be a kid, like us. We should go and meet him for  
dinner or something. He must be like I was when I started."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji wondered, as he walked to school, if Kaworu was going to be  
introduced that day in class. But the roll call went on without the  
introduction of any new student, even though Kaworu was supposed to be arriving  
from Osaka that day. Of course, he might have just got in late; he might  
arrive in the middle of the day, or after school let out. Or maybe he didn't  
go to school at all. If he was as educated as Asuka he wouldn't need school;  
she herself was only in school in order to learn to get along with everyone.  
Which, mused Shinji, wasn't anywhere near as effective as they probably  
expected it to be.  
  
It never did happen. Shinji really did want to greet the new boy; it  
hadn't been long since Shinji had been new to NERV himself, and he still  
recalled how being in an unfamiliar place could accentuate the loneliness of  
being among strangers. Saying "Hello. I understand." would be good for both  
of them.  
  
Now that the school day had ended, Shinji had one place to check: the  
cafeteria. Kaworu might show up there, and if he didn't, well, they didn't  
cook any worse than Misato. He bought a tray of overpriced Turkey Planks and  
peas and looked around the dining area in search of the new boy.  
  
As Shinji had just given up and taken a seat, a pale-haired teen  
approached with a tray of food. It was the same thing Shinji had ordered  
except for an extra piece of Angel Food Cake. "May I sit here?" he asked.  
  
That was him, thought Shinji; it had to be. There weren't a whole lot of  
unfamiliar boys his own age wandering a top-secret facility, dinner or not.  
And the newcomer even looked like a pilot, sort of like Rei. "Sure, go ahead",  
replied Shinji. "Umm... are you the new person?"  
  
The boy smiled. "If you believe you know who I am, you might be right.  
I'm Kaworu Nagisa. You must be Ikari Shinji, the Third Child. Everybody knows  
about you."  
  
"That's right", replied Shinji, exercising long-atrophied facial muscles to  
return the smile.  
  
"I'm like you" he said. "I'm the Fifth Child."  
  
"I know", replied Shinji. "I've been looking around to see where you were.  
You're going to be replacing me. I wanted to welcome you... and say good  
luck."  
  
"Good luck?" wondered the boy.  
  
"Yeah. I got roped into this by my Dad. At first I didn't want to pilot  
Eva at all. And then I wanted to do it only because it was something people  
would appreciate me for. And then I wanted to do it only to help the people  
who depend on me."  
  
"And now you don't have to. It could be fate that I'm here for you,  
Shinji. To come here at this very moment and meet you."  
  
"I don't believe in fate", said Shinji, hacking away at his turkey. "It's  
too easy to think things are fated and not try to affect them yourself, not  
even in little ways. Unless it's some kind of disease or earthquake, I think  
that what happens happens because of people. Maybe not you, maybe not me,  
but people. I didn't have to look for you, and you didn't have to talk to me.  
And Dad and Mom didn't have to go through with their plan. They decided to do  
it."  
  
"You feel betrayed by them. They bring you sadness and you don't like them  
much."  
  
"I don't, Kaworu. They're evil people. You don't know what the project is  
really about."  
  
"It's not important, Shinji."  
  
"Of course it is."  
  
"It's not important, Shinji. It is the kind of talk that denies you  
pleasure and the kind of subject that has struck at your heart."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Hi guys", said Akuma breezily, as he walked into the cafeteria and  
approached Shinji's table. "You must be Kaworu, right? Misato got a picture  
of you. I wondered if you were here, so I dropped by."  
  
"Yeah, that's him" replied Shinji. "We just finished eating, and I was  
going to show him around NERV after hours. Why don't you come, Akuma?  
Kaworu needs to meet you, too."  
  
"The boy from the stars, child of heaven and earth", said Kaworu. "No, it  
is not my place to visit NERV today. Perhaps tomorrow, when Shinji and I can  
be together by ourselves. He has a lovely soul and a deep need in his heart."  
  
Akuma and Shinji looked at each other. Akuma's expression was quizzical,  
and Shinji responded by slowly nodding. Then, Akuma glanced at Kaworu again,  
then back to Shinji, whereupon Shinji nodded another time. Finally, Akuma  
asked Kaworu, a bit uncertainly, what was on his mind. "I know this is a  
little personal, but Kaworu... are you gay?"  
  
The question didn't seem to disturb the boy. He replied "Sexual  
orientation is one of the things that humans make up to keep them apart from  
each other. I'll see you tomorrow, Shinji." He smiled at Shinji and walked  
away, no doubt back to his room.  
  
"That's pretty funny", said Akuma once Kaworu was a safe distance away.  
"The new Child arrives and he has a crush on you."  
  
Shinji grimaced slightly. "I'm going to disappoint him, then. But I can  
sort of sympathize for him", he said. "Kaworu must be more depressed than I  
was. Being gay isn't going to make him very popular, and it's not just that.  
He's some kind of amateur psychoanalyst, and he can't have made many friends  
by doing that... I'm probably the first person to listen to him at all in a  
long, long, time."  
  
"You have to admit sometimes you bring it on yourself, Shinji. I tried  
some of that when I met you, you seemed so out of it."  
  
"Yes, but you got better."  
  
* * * * *  
  
It turned out that Kaworu indeed wasn't attending school. He didn't show  
up in class the next day, and the teacher hadn't heard of him. Short of making  
an unannounced visit to his apartment, the other ex-pilots' best chance to meet  
him would be when he was doing synchronization tests in the evening.  
  
Luckily, Shinji's pass still functioned. Not that not having a pass would  
have stopped them, with Akuma in their group as well as Rei and Asuka.  
  
"Hello", said Misato. "Here to see the new kid?"  
  
"Yup", replied Akuma.  
  
"Well, he's already in Unit 02." Misato indicated the huge 'machine' that  
was the only Evangelion unit remaining of what was once a trio. "His sync is  
around sixty percent, though it's hard to tell if that's normal or not. I'm a  
bit suspicious of him, as you know; watch out, okay?"  
  
"He's not weird, he's gay", replied Shinji.  
  
"Really?" wondered Asuka, surprised. Shinji whispered something into her  
ear. Asuka's eyes widened. "You have got to be kidding, Idiot Shinji. He  
_really_ said that sexual orientation is...?"  
  
"I was there", answered Shinji. "You can still try to ask him out once he  
comes out of that Eva." Shinji pointed to where Unit 02 was comfortably  
nestled in the test equipment. "He might be bisexual."  
  
Asuka shook her head. "Uh-_uh_", she replied. "I was _not_ planning to  
ask him out. Anyway, I'd probably catch something."  
  
Rei commented, "You can't catch AIDS from kissing."  
  
"Who said anything about AIDS? Probably cooties or something. You know  
there wouldn't be a word for cooties if there wasn't any such thing."  
  
"Pretty lame excuse if you ask me", said Akuma.  
  
"You're just saying that because he made a pass at Shinji instead of you,  
Devilman."  
  
"Ha, ha. You know, though, that was pretty odd. He already knew about  
me, and it's hard to tell, but I think he felt I'd interfere in whatever he  
was up to."  
  
"What's to wonder, Devilman? He likes Idiot Shinji. He probably thinks  
of you as a rival because you knew Shinji first. Maybe someone told him who  
you were. Don't worry, it wasn't me. I'd never do anything like that."  
  
"It wasn't any of us", said Misato. "Not as far as I know. And it wasn't  
Touji or Kensuke; he doesn't go to school, after all. Someone must have  
briefed him on what to expect." She glanced another time at the test  
readings. "All the tests have been fine so far, but that proves nothing;  
whoever told him about Akuma could have told him to make the synchronization  
look normal."  
  
"Nobody ever told me that when they sent me here", said Akuma. "If they  
had, I'd have had a chance to ask my grandmother for something to stop the  
problem with the oxygen."  
  
"SEELE is a bunch of idiots", said Misato. "Twenty-year conspiracy,  
extremely influential, untouchable, GEHIRN-dead, idiots. It's what all secret  
organizations are like; there's nothing to select for competence. But Yui  
knows what she's doing. She probably handed them a few clues."  
  
"Do you think he's the real one, Misato?" asked Akuma. "An Angel sent by  
SEELE?"  
  
"Who can say? But I think I'm going to call your family tonight. If I'm  
wrong, I look silly, and maybe I have to buy Ryouko a few drinks... if I'm  
right, it's the end of the world. Even knowing how much she drinks, I think I  
know which of those possibilities is worse." She let out a sigh of exhaustion.  
  
* * * * *  
  
It was a very long and hard night for Misato. Dammit, they didn't even  
care that Ritsuko was dead; not only did work go on as usual, they didn't  
assign any extra personnel to make up for her absence, which gave Misato  
nearly twice the work she usually had during a test.  
  
Finally, Misato yelled out the command to stop, and testing was completed.  
The machinery lifted the entry plug out of Unit 02 and Kaworu stumbled forth  
out of it, spewing up orange fluid as all pilots did.  
  
"New sequence", said Maya.  
  
"New sequence?" wondered Misato. "Whose orders? What is it?"  
  
"It's from Yui herself. Unit 02 is going to be taken to the Madagascar  
branch."  
  
That was really strange. What could they do with it there? "Start the  
transport sequence", grumbled Misato.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The transport sequence. Start it."  
  
"Oh."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Meanwhile, the four ex-Children were gathering around the new pilot. He  
looked them over with no more warmth than a gardener poring over a bed of  
marigolds, and then introduced himself. "I'm Kaworu Nagisa. The Fifth Child.  
I've been told much about all of you, and I'm pleased that we've finally met."  
  
May as well see how he acts right off the bat, thought Asuka. "So you're  
the one taking our jobs?" she asked.  
  
"I thought you changed your mind about wanting to work, Asuka", said Akuma.  
  
"Yeah, well, still. I'm Sohryuu Asuka Langley."  
  
"I already know your names", replied Kaworu. "And I see you're no longer  
attached to piloting, but you have some feelings which remain mixed."  
  
That was bizarre. Asuka was expecting anger in reply, maybe fear or  
bemusement. But even if he was almost blonde, who would expect him to be such  
a ditz? "You sound like an advice columnist", replied Asuka. "Cut the crap,  
all right?"  
  
"I sound like a person whose function is to mediate between individuals.  
An interesting concept. No, I am still not fully acquainted with how you  
behave and I'm afraid such a position would be foreign to me."  
  
"Nice try, Asuka", said Shinji. "I would rather... you _not_ get mad at  
him, okay?"  
  
"Don't tell me who to get mad at, Idiot Shinji!" yelled Asuka. "I'm not  
getting mad, anyway!" Well, just frustrated. A lot. Kaworu was either a  
ditz, or deliberately trying to irritate her. Who did he think he was,  
anyway?  
  
"You look mad", said Rei.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Some time later, Asuka left. Perhaps, thought Shinji, she just got fed up  
with Kaworu. It was understandable, after all. Rei followed her, but that  
was even more understandable; for some reason, Kaworu hadn't said a single word  
to Rei all that time, and even Rei couldn't stare at walls _forever_.  
  
"Well", said Akuma as Asuka and Rei left. "I have to go too. There's a  
holiday coming up... at least, it's a holiday where my family comes from. It's  
called 'Startica'. I need to go home and help prepare... so I'll be going  
away too. Have fun at NERV!" Akuma smiled as he departed, the expression  
somehow looking not completely sincere. He walked to the door, though Shinji  
knew that once he was out of Kaworu's view, he'd be teleporting.  
  
"Bye! See you tomorrow" said Shinji. So that was it; he and Kaworu were  
the only two remaining.  
  
"I wonder if there is a song for Startica", said Kaworu.  
  
"A song?"  
  
"A song brings joy. It is the highest form of culture that humanity has  
created."  
  
"Oh! You're a Macross fan?"  
  
Kaworu shook his head. "Commonality... something you do to produce a  
meeting of the minds with another person. To have shared experiences, even in  
popular culture. This is what you are talking about."  
  
"Yes. Um, Kaworu? You don't have to talk like that. It bothers, well,  
people like Asuka."  
  
"It disturbs you too. You are alone, Shinji, and you cannot bear to listen  
to another person's words. Such rejection allows you to avoid hurt but at the  
cost of your feelings."  
  
"Kaworu..." said Shinji. "You're right. I know the feeling. I've been  
depressed far too many times myself, and it's something I've had to try to  
get over. But... it's not that I'm trying to offend you, but nobody really  
talks like that. Let's talk about something else and do something else.  
Okay?"  
  
"I am going to the showers now, Shinji. Would you like to come in with  
me?"  
  
"No!" yelled Shinji. "I mean, I'm not like that...." Maybe the  
psychoanalysis part was just a line that Kaworu was feeding him and it was an  
excuse to get alone and... no. The paranoia was getting back to him again,  
just like it got to Misato and Kaji and everyone else in this place. Kaworu  
hadn't done anything at all other than make a pass; Shinji just had to reject  
it. Who really cared if he was gay? "I'll come with you, Kaworu. All right?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
As soon as the children had left, Misato punched the buttons on her phone  
as fast as she could and waited for the answer.  
  
"Hello... you have reached the Masaki household. None of us are here  
right now, but if you leave your name...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji showered with Kaworu, but carefully; he pretended that it was Asuka  
in there and he did whatever he could to make sure the girl... or boy...  
would miss seeing anything that he wouldn't leave visible on a beach.  
  
"I have enjoyed talking to you", said Kaworu as Shinji was putting on his  
pants. "Your heart is one which can accept love, and I love you."  
  
Shinji gulped and quickly fumbled for the rest of his clothes, tripping  
over himself in an effort to get them on. "Kaworu, I really don't...."  
  
"That is why I wanted you here with me. I must part you Lilim now; the  
time for reunion with Adam is approaching and I must tell Yui to complete her  
preparations."  
  
Shinji's heart skipped a beat. Kaworu being gay he could deal with; but  
this... It would have been much worse if he hadn't been half-expecting it all  
through the night, but now the truth was certain. Kaworu was an Angel. An  
invader. There was no mistaken identity this time; Shinji's new 'friend' had  
just casually announced that he was going to embark on a course of action that  
would annihilate all of humanity. "What..." he asked dumbly, at a loss for  
anything nontrivial to say. "What does 'Lilim' mean?"  
  
Kaworu didn't answer. But he turned away from Shinji and, ignoring the  
force of gravity, ascended into the air bathed in angelic glow.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma wrinkled his nose at the smell of the plaster. Plaster doesn't have  
much of an odor normally; but Akuma's nose and the plaster of the wall occupied  
the same physical space, intensifying the scent a hundredfold. And of course  
any space within a wall is cramped and dark, and hearing outside it is  
difficult.  
  
He was almost glad when Kaworu finally did reveal himself. Akuma stepped  
out of the wall as if it was a magic mirror from a fairy tale. "Shinji",  
he explained, "it means that this place is going to be a scene from Psychic  
Force in a minute... you'd better get away! Get out of here as fast as you  
can, as far away as you can...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji fled, on his own two human feet. He never looked back as the battle  
raged behind him. He _had_ to get out of the complex without any hesitation;  
it might not be there come another ten minutes. The whole deal reminded him  
of the old Bible story where Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt because  
she took the time to look back. Come to think of it, that story had angels  
too.  
  
The entire plan had been Akuma's suggestion. He would pretend to leave for  
his Juraian holiday, while secretly sticking around. Then Shinji and Kaworu  
would be left alone, to do whatever Kaworu wanted. If all that he wanted was  
to get in Shinji's pants, Shinji would slap Kaworu, Akuma would ignore it, and  
the next day Shinji would talk about it at lunch, everyone would get a few  
laughs, and Akuma would pretend he was hearing it all for the first time.  
  
But if Kaworu were an Angel who feared Akuma's interference, the "absence"  
of the boy who was his biggest threat would give him the perfect opportunity to  
act. Only, once he had revealed himself, Akuma would be there to stop it.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma summoned the Light Hawk Wings, enveloping himself in a softly glowing  
aura and materializing a sword, seething with energy, in his hands. He willed  
his body to rise up into the air as naturally as anyone else might take a  
footstep, preparing himself for the fight against the boy who could destroy  
the world unless he, the only person in NERV who could, succeeded in protecting  
it.  
  
The Angel fled, flying out of the shower room and away from Akuma, seeking  
his goal somewhere inside the complex.  
  
Akuma, however, would not let Kaworu get away that easily. He could  
teleport, and using the same ability that usually served only to get himself to  
class on time, disappeared and reappeared in front of the Angel. Akuma swung  
his sword through the air. They were in the corridor now, and there wasn't  
much room to swing a sword, but it didn't matter; the weapon, possessing  
power that had been called the aura of God, sliced through walls, light  
fixtures, and all other mundane things as if they weren't even there. His  
sudden appearance caught the Angel by surprise, and his sword scored a solid  
hit on Kaworu's AT field; it clashed with it, letting sparks fly, but leaving  
the Angel unhurt.  
  
Kaworu looked around. Was he trying to find a place to run to? It wasn't  
going to be that easy, thought Akuma. He couldn't run. But the Angel was  
moving away, and Akuma prepared another teleport.  
  
However, Kaworu didn't move very far. He aimed his hands at the ceiling  
and shot a blast of energy into it, exposing pipes and wires. Flying up just  
a short distance, Kaworu wrapped his hands around the pipes and tore out a  
half dozen meter length of them, the undoubtedly low strength of his physical  
body magnified hundreds of times by the AT Field. The field seemed to flow up  
along the bundle of pipes in Kaworu's hands, and Kaworu swung it at Akuma.  
  
Akuma ducked by flying low, quickly descending until his feet cleared the  
ground by only a few inches. Then he raised himself up into the air again,  
throwing a power-laden punch into Kaworu's stomach. Not that the location made  
much difference, because of the AT Field, but Akuma could feel some give. He  
knew, from his previous experience, that though most weapons and most forces  
couldn't destroy an Angel's AT Field, the Light Hawk Wings was far from 'most  
forces'.  
  
Kaworu responded with a blast of raw energy, which Akuma could not dodge.  
It shoved him into a wall, which fragmented and crumbled under the enormous  
force. Akuma himself was protected by his Light Hawk shield, but he knew that  
he too could weaken just as Kaworu could. Why did Kaworu make him do this,  
anyway? He had to have some kind of human feelings. Why did he want to  
destroy the world?  
  
Akuma dodged another followup blast as the entire wall collapsed and a  
girder began to fall. He shoved it out of his way angrily. He and Kaworu  
could have been friends. But now... Akuma swung his Light Hawk Sword at  
Kaworu again. Akuma imagined it hitting... passing through Kaworu's arms, his  
stomach, chopping him in two; but instead, this blow too clanged against the  
Angel's AT Field.  
  
Kaworu blasted Akuma again, interrupting his thoughts. The blast  
threw him down the corridor, sending him spinning right past the bend and  
through another wall.  
  
Akuma recovered his aerial balance and pushed away chunks of plaster with  
his Light Hawk Wings. He looked down the corridor but the Angel was nowhere to  
be seen, having taken this moment to escape. And there was no way Akuma could  
just teleport to an unknown target.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Misato heard the sounds of the battle and the clattering of alarms all  
over NERV. Hoping that she could get help before it was too late, she  
frantically dialed the Masaki home again. The phone rang twice, and then a  
girl answered. "Hello, Masaki Mayuka speaking."  
  
"Mayuka! It's Katsuragi Misato... from NERV. We need your mother and  
father here... we have the last Angel."  
  
Many miles away, Mayuka pressed a big red button.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Kaworu wanted to get to the center, thought Akuma. Where Lilith was  
located, where the heart of NERV and Tokyo-3 rested. Lilith, that strange being  
who Rei was a part of.... Dammit, Kaworu was basically going to rape Rei. And  
if he got his chance to "merge" before Akuma could stop him, it would be over.  
His grandmother's inventions wouldn't help; Shinji couldn't arrive in his  
Eva to save the day; the Earth would be gone. Maybe it would continue  
spinning, but all the civilization of humanity would be reduced to a self-  
absorbed, self-psychoanalyzing layer of bitter-tasting syrup.  
  
Akuma tried a random teleport. There was no choice except to search,  
hoping that he could find some signs of the Angel's passage. If Kaworu was  
smart, he would avoid creating any loud, noisy, explosions until the last  
moment, so he couldn't be found. Akuma tried again, and again, but could not  
find the Angel. But suddenly, he heard a tremendous roar, muffled by several  
layers of walls.  
  
Akuma teleported directly to the sound and found himself right behind  
Kaworu, who had destroyed the wall in order to reach a chamber that was unlike  
anything else Akuma had seen in NERV. But this was no time to gawk at the  
scenery. Akuma pointed his hands forwards and summoned the Light Hawk Wings,  
one attached to each arm. He slammed his hands together. The Wings, too,  
slammed together and crushed Kaworu, following Akuma's own motion.  
  
Kaworu fought back, pushing against the energy constructs from the inside.  
He was beginning to sweat, but after a massive struggle he finally flung  
Akuma's Light Hawk Wings aside and zoomed away towards the end of the chamber.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Two blue patterns detected", said Makoto. "Two AT Fields. It's the Angel  
and... probably the not-Angel. They're heading for the center."  
  
"I hear it", said Misato. As she nervously paced the floor, thunderous  
sounds muffled by dozens of rooms of distance from her made it clear that a  
battle was taking place. If those rumbles ended, either the world would be  
safe... or everybody's body would collapse into fluid like the Wicked Witch of  
the West. Misato didn't want that; Kaji appreciated her body, and she was  
somewhat attached to it herself.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma teleported in front of Kaworu again, but he had misjudged the  
Angel's trajectory. Kaworu, it seemed, was slowing down. Indeed he came to  
a stop right before Akuma's eyes. He mouthed something inaudible, then yelled  
it so that it could be heard through both fields. "It's wrong!"  
  
"What...?" Akuma now looked around him at the room. It really was  
immense. The chamber stretched for hundreds of yards and its floor was covered  
with a meter of orange fluid. The air currents in the room formed small waves  
in it. At the other end was a giant, roughly humanoid, figure nailed to a  
cross, a spear the size of a bus embedded in its chest. The lower half of its  
body was missing, and the fluid seemed to be dripping out of where it should  
have been.  
  
So this was the chamber of Lilith. Akuma had heard of it, but never seen  
it.  
  
"This is not Adam. It is Lilith. SEELE has lied", shouted Kaworu. He  
was panting with exertion as the use of his energy was reflected by a  
corresponding effect in his human body.  
  
"Does that mean the fight is over?" yelled Akuma.  
  
"I must seek the true Adam." Kaworu flew back, and away.  
  
Of course. The fight wasn't over. If Kaworu found that he was after the  
wrong target, he'd go chase after it, not stand there as if his head was going  
to come off. Akuma prepared another teleport.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Anti-AT-Field detected", said Makoto.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Something else materialized, near where Kaworu was but farther up in the  
air. It revealed itself to be Mayuka, falling downwards. Her eyes were  
glowing red and bolts of red energy were emanating from them. When she fell  
past Kaworu, she released all the energy of her gaze onto the Angel, causing an  
unearthly red light to negate his AT Field and envelop his body. Kaworu  
screamed, his body melting away without even leaving a puddle behind. Mayuka  
landed on an island in the LCL and caught in her hand the inch-wide red gem  
that was all that was left of Kaworu Nagisa.   
  
Akuma dropped his Light Hawk Wings and teleported next to his sister.  
"You did it..." he said. "If an AT Field is the same as the wings of light,  
then a force of darkness would destroy it...."  
  
"That wasn't easy, you know", said Mayuka. "Even after you weakened him.  
It's not as if I get much chance to practice that move. Anyway, we have his  
core now." She tossed the gem in the air a couple of times, catching it  
again as it came down. "The world is safe." She grinned. "Well, Mom, Dad,  
and Aunt Sasami don't need to rush any more. I wonder if we can get the  
location of SEELE out of this thing somehow?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
The air shimmered, a shimmer that resolved itself into the shapes of  
Tenchi, Ryouko, Sasami, and Washuu.  
  
"Hi guys, you're late", said Mayuka. "We saved the world." She held up  
the gem for Washuu to see.  
  
"Well, I guess you did", answered Washuu. "I'm really proud of you!"  
  
"It's me who should be proud of them!" exclaimed Ryouko. She flew down to  
hug the two teens.  
  
"I don't like this place", said Tenchi.  
  
"It's... sort of private", said Sasami, looking at the huge figure at the  
other end.  
  
"All right, let's get out", said Washuu. "On the count of three. Three,  
two... Sasami, is something the matter?"  
  
"No, it's all right" she replied. "I'm just... recalling something I  
forgot. Let's go."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Almost everyone in the control area was shocked at seeing six human figures  
materialize out of thin air. Almost everyone, that is, except Misato. She had  
seen teleports before, and what's more, she understood what their presence  
implied. The kind of relief experienced upon knowing that the world isn't  
going to end is overwhelming. "Thank god", said Misato, letting out the breath  
she had been unconsciously holding in for far too long. "It's over. No more  
Angels. You did it... didn't you?"  
  
"Don't worry", said Sasami. "They did, Misato. They really did."  
  
"Sensors show no more AT Fields in NERV", said Makoto.  
  
Misato nodded. She stepped forward to shake the hand of the teenagers who  
had saved humanity.  
  
"But there's a weak field, distance a hundred kilometers."  
  
"What?" said Misato. "That's imposs-- wait. Unit 02? It must be Unit 02.  
They must not be really sending it to Madagascar. Where is it? How long has  
it been going on?"  
  
"It's roughly northwest, maam. It's impossible to tell how long it's been  
there. The strong AT Fields from the battle here drowned out any signal we  
could sense from farther away. And there seems to be more than one field,  
though it's hard to tell. It could have been like that for up to a half hour."  
  
"You mean Kaworu was a _distraction_?"  
  
"That's certainly a possibility...."  
  
Washuu cleared her throat. "Ahem" growled the scientist. "Someone ask me  
how long it takes to start the Third Impact."  
  
Mayuka took the bait first. Before she could get two syllables of the  
first word of the question past her lips, Washuu answered it. "About a half  
hour. I suggest we get moving."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Washuu's scientific teleporter hadn't been calibrated for arbitrary  
locations, so Ryouko and Akuma had to carry everyone, teleporting them in on  
a Light Hawk wing used as a platform. The area they appeared in was covered  
in sand and mostly barren; the sole signs of human habitation were a few  
nondescript two-story buildings and an old asphalt road. The ground, however,  
was studded with irregularly-shaped craters tens of meters wide. It was  
obvious what had caused those, because flying overhead was Evangelion Unit 02,  
surrounded by nine enormous Evangelion-like armored white creatures that let  
out the occasional howl.  
  
Sasami instantly recognized the formation from her and Washuu's research.  
"The tree of life", she said. "Unit 02 is at the Tipheret position, which  
symbolizes the self... whoever's piloting that is going to have complete  
control over whatever happens to everyone on the face of the planet. We have  
to stop them!"  
  
"You have less than five minutes", said Washuu calmly. "Unit 02 has  
already been powered up."  
  
"Look over there!" said Akuma. Silhouetted against the sky were two tiny  
human figures, one holding onto the second, who had a hand stretched out as if  
holding onto some invisible airplane that was dragging them both along. "There  
are people there. Something's pulling them."  
  
Mayuka screamed, clenching her fist tightly around the red orb. "It's  
moving! I'm going to be pulled too...."  
  
"What's moving, dear?" asked Ryouko.  
  
"The core. The last Angel's core. I have to do something, it's going to  
pull me into the air." She withdrew a large orb from her pocket and held it  
up. "See you as soon as I dump this thing", she said. The orb glowed,  
illuminating her face like a space-opera villain's, and then she faded away.  
  
As Mayuka vanished into the Dark Dimension to stow her Angel core, the  
others soared into the air, except for Washuu, who was limited to taking  
readings on her equipment. There wasn't much she could directly do at the  
moment, and besides, the opportunity for Washuu to take readings of something  
like this was something that didn't happen every day.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Ryouko and Tenchi rocketed up to Evangelion Unit 02. There was no time,  
and no need for, any subtlety. The raw power of twenty Light Hawk Wings tore  
through the construct like Noboyuki through a pile of H magazines.  
  
Meanwhile, Sasami and Akuma flew to approach the two humans. They didn't  
have to get very close before it became obvious who the two were; one was  
Yui, and the other Gendou, his hand stretched out in front of himself. Just  
under the skin of that hand lay a half-formed embryo of some inhuman thing, one  
eye open and staring towards the place where Unit 02 was disintegrating. And  
on the faces of both husband and wife were beatific smiles as the energy of the  
approaching Impact drew the creature in, and with it them.  
  
"It's too late!", yelled Gendou, and then his voice trailed off to a low  
whisper. "Far, far, too late. You can't stop us... we only needed Unit 02  
for a moment. It's coalescing around us... the link that brought Adam to Unit  
02 was enough even if we never reached the center."  
  
There must be only seconds left. Sasami prepared a lethal energy burst  
aimed for the two conspirators. She'd regret it later... but if any reason  
ever justified killing, the end of the world would have to be it.  
  
"You've lost", said Yui. "All that power, and you lost. SEELE lost.  
Prepare for the next step in human evolution." Waves of darkness and light  
surrounded them and expanded. Sasami shot a blast of unimaginable power at  
them... but it evaporated in midair as the waves passed it. They overtook  
Sasami, Akuma, Ryouko and Tenchi, the mass production Evas... expanding out to  
the limits of the globe.  
  
"No", said Washuu far below, just before the wave passed over her. "We  
don't give up that easily." She pressed one last big red button.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Mayuka tossed the core into a jar and then sat down at her observation  
system. It had changed little since it had belonged to Yuzuha; it gave her  
views of, and pathways from the Dark Dimension to, places on Jurai, on Earth,  
or anywhere in the universe.  
  
She saw her family fight, but too late, as Gendou's version of the Third  
Impact dissolved the world starting with himself and Yui. She also saw the  
interference pattern that began at her own home. Washuu must have had one last  
ace-in-the-hole in case the unthinkable happened. Living things dissolved,  
then reformed, in shapes similar but not identical. Then they dissolved again,  
until the clashing energy waves subsided and creatures arose out of the muck  
as if it were their first foray into existence.  
  
It wasn't SEELE's Third Impact. It wasn't Gendou's either. And it wasn't  
just conversion of the planet into a sea of liquid people. But just what was  
it?  
  
There was only one way to tell. Mayuka pulled out her orb and in a flicker  
of eerie light, vanished, to see the new Earth for herself.  
  
END CHAPTER 9.  



	10. Time and Space Adventures (I)

Sorry this is so short. Also sorry I had to use some Tenchi TV continuity in  
this--the OAV version (which is an audio drama) is not available translated.  
  
Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 10  
Time and Space Adventures (I)  
  
Shinji was dreaming. Dreaming of possibilities, wondering just what he was  
going to do with his life. For some reason the concept of control over his  
life seemed terribly important to him.  
  
"Wake up!"  
  
The words barely penetrated through the fog of morning grogginess. He  
mumbled something, thinking in his half-somnolent state that he had driven his  
summoner away.  
  
"Idiot Shinji! Wake up now, Idiot Shinji!" Someone pulled at his covers.  
He wanted to stay in bed. It wasn't school time yet... was it? Shinji opened  
his eyes momentarily and saw Asuka standing over him. "Oh, it's you, Asuka."  
She was dressed in her school uniform... oh no, not again. Reluctantly,  
Shinji forced himself the rest of the way to consciousness.   
  
"'Oh, it's you, Asuka'? Every morning, I wake you up so you're not late  
for school. Is that the right way to thank an old childhood friend?"  
  
"Uhh, thanks. Can I sleep a bit more?"  
  
"Oh, what a lazy boy you are. And you..." She happened to glance down  
under the covers she pulled away. Shinji suspected he might be in _real_  
trouble now. Asuka didn't understand how a guy's body... worked. "You pervert  
guy!" yelled Asuka. "I don't believe it!"  
  
How could he make her understand? He wasn't even thinking about girls or  
looking at a magazine. It just happened. "It's morning. It's natural" he  
tried to explain. Asuka, not believing it very much, dragged him out and made  
him get ready with an extra helping of yelling.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Mayuka materialized on the sand, in the place where just minutes ago, the  
last stand against SEELE had taken place. It didn't look like a battlefield.  
There were no huge holes in the ground; there were no piles of debris from  
where Unit 02 had been torn apart. It was as if there had never been a battle.  
There weren't any buildings, either; in fact, it was as if human beings had  
never lived in that area.  
  
The Third Impact? Could it have succeeded? If everyone was gone... what  
could she do? She might be the only person living on the entire Earth.  
  
A dull roar sounded overhead. Mayuka glanced up into the sky. The sight  
of a distant airplane greeted her, gleaming in the sun, and she let out a sigh  
of relief. How silly of her. There must still be people around. The Third  
Impact failed after all. She just needed to have a little more faith in  
Washuu.   
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji knew Asuka well enough to know about how long to wait before Asuka  
would calm down. It mostly depended on the severity of the offense. Finally  
deciding that Asuka had probably worked all the anger out of her system, he  
figured it would be safe to talk to her again.  
  
"I hear there's a new girl student today in school, Asuka."  
  
"Well, yes", she replied, as if he had been stating something too obvious.  
"This city will be the new capital after the transfer last year. We're getting  
more people moving in."  
  
"Right. What kind of girl? I wonder if she's cute." Asuka glared at  
him.  
  
Shinji was spared another Asuka-outburst when a girl he had never seen  
before--one with pale hair, and ruby eyes--crashed into them both, throwing  
Shinji to the ground. "Ouch!"  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry", said the girl. "I was in a rush."  
  
Shinji realized he could see her panties from his position on the ground,  
and hoped he wasn't blushing. Boys weren't supposed to blush, anyway.  
"Ahh..." he stammered.  
  
"Really, I'm sorry", said the girl.  
  
"Ahh..."  
  
"Gee", said Asuka, dragging Shinji away by the arm.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Was everyone okay? The world still existed, but that didn't mean anything.  
Mayuka didn't think her parents could have been seriously hurt... but it was  
something she had to find out for herself.  
  
Another trip through the Dark Dimension brought her to a carrot field. A  
few dozen yards away her mother was hanging up laundry to dry. She was all  
right, then.   
  
But something nagged at Mayuka. There was something wrong about this  
scene. And then she realized what it was. The design of the house was  
almost completely unfamiliar to her. She vaguely remembered seeing something  
similar in old photographs.... "Mom! The house! It's all wrong!"  
  
"Miss, are you lost?", asked Ryouko.  
  
"Mom, I'm not lost, I'm..." The only expression on her mother's face was  
puzzlement. "Oh no!" yelled Mayuka. "Mom, do you remember me? Do you know  
me? Mom?" She ran towards Ryouko.  
  
"Calm down, miss" said Ryouko. "Who are you looking for?"  
  
"Mom, please... it's Grandma. She did something... she stopped it, but  
now you don't remember me. I need to see Dad... Tenchi Masaki. And Grandma...  
Washuu, your mother. And Great-Grandfather Yosho. It's urgent! Do any of  
you remember?"  
  
Her father opened the door and looked out. "Who are you? We don't have  
any other relatives, and Grandfather... isn't going to be able to talk to  
you."  
  
"Dad? You don't remember me either?" Mayuka's eyes began to water.  
"And what's wrong with Great-Grandfather?"  
  
"If you must know, he's dying."  
  
"Dying, Dad? Of what?"  
  
"Don't try to trick my wife like that! I would never have a child with  
anyone else and I would certainly never abandon any child of mine! You must  
be pretending you're related in order to get the inheritance...."  
  
"Inheritance?"  
  
"He's 79 years old! He should be as happy as we can make him in his last  
days, not interrupted by sharks trying to take everything that belongs to a  
dying man...."  
  
"I... see", said Mayuka, crying. "Goodbye. Dad, Mom... no matter what  
you do or don't remember, you'll always be my parents. I love you...." Mayuka  
vanished with the flare of an orb and reappeared in the crimson-leafed branches  
of the regrown Tree of Darkness. "What do I do?" she said to the tree. "They  
don't know me. Something happened to the world, and whatever it was, it  
skipped me. I don't want to be alone...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
If Shinji had been smarter, he would have shut up about the morning's  
incident. It might even have worked for a while, giving him some peace until  
Asuka started to complain about it anyway. Instead, Touji and Kensuke teased  
him mercilessly right up until the teacher arrived.  
  
"Misato is so gorgeous!" said Touji as the teacher entered. There was a  
girl accompanying her. Meanwhile, Hikari and Asuka were calling the boys  
idiots behind their backs.  
  
Misato smiled at the class. "Hello, everyone. Today, the transfer student  
everyone's been talking about is here. Let me introduce her."  
  
She turned to the new student, who wrote her name on the blackboard and  
bowed. "I'm Ayanami Rei. Nice to meet you!"  
  
All the boys gaped at her. She was quite attractive. Shinji said "Wow!"  
But wait a minute... it was her. The girl he had run into. She was glaring at  
him... uh-oh.  
  
"You!" yelled Rei. "You were that stupid guy who looked at my panties  
this morning!"  
  
"You hussy!" replied Asuka, defending him whether he wanted her to or not.  
"Don't say that. You showed it to Shinji!"  
  
"Who are you anyway? Are you two a couple?"  
  
"I'm his childhood friend, bitch!"  
  
"We have to be quiet..." said Hikari.  
  
"Oh, hush", said the teacher. "This is fun. Go ahead." And everyone  
laughed.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Mayuka guessed, from what she had seen, that if she went to class, her class  
would be there. But her dorm wouldn't. She couldn't get test papers back, or  
turn in homework. And her friends wouldn't know her.  
  
It was useless to go onto campus and check. But faintly hoping for a  
miracle, she tried anyway, reappearing in the middle of a clump of more  
conventional trees for which it was not perpetually autumn. She stepped away  
and oriented herself.  
  
Everything was subtly different. The campus, at least, was there, but one  
path, that she knew of as paved with cement, had turned to bricks, while it now  
led to the physics building instead of biology. The abstract statue in the  
center of the field was full of cube shapes instead of spheres, and when she  
arrived at her lecture hall it was scaffolded in metal and closed for  
renovations. There was a note explaining where the class was, but she didn't  
bother going. It would be pointless.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Hmph, thought Asuka as she ate her lunch. The morning incident had faded  
in her mind to a general distrust of Shinji. He could not be allowed to get  
too close to that hussy. She had to be a hussy, it just seemed the style of  
girls like that. Arranging that incident.... there had to be some way to keep  
her away from Shinji.  
  
"Hey, Rei! Akuma!" yelled Asuka.  
  
"Yes, what is it?" replied the albino.  
  
Akuma, a pony-tailed boy sitting to Asuka's right, turned to look.  
  
"I'd like you to meet Akuma. Akuma, Rei... Rei, Akuma. He doesn't have  
a girlfriend, so why don't you two sit and talk for a while?" Akuma nodded in  
reply. He didn't say anything. Good, he was awestruck by Rei's supposed  
beauty. "Oh, Rei? Akuma's parents are rich."  
  
"Asuka, you really don't need to talk about that", said Akuma. "It's  
all... not what it seems like."  
  
"I know", whispered Asuka. "They're criminals and all that... but it's  
your big chance. Come on, you can score with this girl."  
  
"Score?" said Rei suspiciously, eyeing Asuka and Akuma. Oops, thought  
Asuka, the bitch heard that. Asuka shouldn't have gotten so excited.  
  
"Hey, I didn't say it!" objected Akuma.  
  
Rei smiled. "Oh, that's all right, then." Then the suspicious look  
appeared on her face again. In the same tone of voice as before, she asked  
"Criminals?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
It was so obvious. If only Mayuka had thought of it before. There was  
still one place she could go.  
  
Mayuka returned to the Dark Dimension and then stepped out once again. It  
was a lush and green place that she appeared, one where gentle and unpolluted  
breezes filled the air and where the crowds of Earth did not exist. Two bands  
of white stretched across the pure blue sky, crossing near the horizon. A  
short walk away from her was a large stone and wood building, one that she knew  
was as old as most of Earth's civilizations, and occupied during all those  
eras. She was on Jurai. Mayuka walked towards the nearby castle.  
  
"Your pass please?" said one of the guards as Mayuka approached the front  
gate.  
  
Mayuka normally knew better than to give the guards a hard time. She  
pulled out her wallet and rummaged for the pass... only to remember that she  
had left it in her dorm room since it wasn't exactly something she needed to  
constantly carry around. The dorm room, of course, no longer existed. There  
must be something....  
  
Ah, got it. Luckily she had that. Mayuka pulled out a 5000 Juraian Yen  
bill. "Here", she said, flipping the bill over. "See that family picture?  
That's me over there." She pointed to a figure in one corner of the picture,  
standing near her parents and Akuma.  
  
"You really do look like her", replied the guard.   
  
"May I enter?"  
  
"I'm sorry, you'll have to wait here. This isn't proof, you know." The  
guard left his post and entered the palace.  
  
Mayuka fidgeted and waited, but soon the guard returned with Aeka. She  
had evidently impressed him enough that he'd gone through the trouble of  
finding someone to vouch for her--guards obviously couldn't do that every  
single time someone wanted to enter. "Hi, Aunt Aeka", she said.  
  
"Hello, Duchess... you're looking remarkably sad today. There's clearly  
something troubling you. Please come in."  
  
Mayuka bowed to Aeka. "I appreciate your hospitality, your highness", she  
replied, and whispered "You recognize me, right?" too softly for the guards to  
hear. Aeka nodded back slightly, a puzzled expression on her face.  
  
Aeka took Mayuka through the maze of palace rooms and passages into her  
private study. Noboyuki, who had been waiting there, and Aeka both gave  
Mayuka warm hugs. She cried in relief. "You're okay... you're yourselves and  
we're still family. I'm glad you're not gone too."  
  
"Now that those guards are out of the way", said Aeka, "we can talk.  
Mayuka, there's obviously something very wrong. What happened?"  
  
Mayuka sat down in a chair, almost slumping. "Aunt Aeka... grandfather...  
it's all terrible! The whole Earth has been changed. I don't exist and  
nobody remembers me."  
  
"The whole Earth?" said Aeka. "Oh no" she added. "It had to do with  
those Angel things that Akuma was having trouble with before I came back  
here... was it something from those?"  
  
"Pretty much. I finally got rid of the last Angel when he was fighting  
Akuma, and we all got sent to..."  
  
"You'd better start from the beginning", said Noboyuki. "Explain  
everything. I know even less about it than Aeka does."  
  
Mayuka stopped. "All right, Grandfather. It all began when these giant  
monsters started attacking Tokyo-3. But we didn't find out about it until  
Akuma got invited to go to a private school in the area...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Well, thought Rei, that boy wasn't bad-looking. He had a dark secret, but  
it wasn't really secretive and didn't sound very dark. In fact, it was just  
enough of a dark secret that it could be fun. "If you want to tell me about  
it after school, I think I could use some company on the way home. I've never  
been to this school before, you know. I might get lost going back...."  
  
Asuka let out a smile. It looked to Rei an awful lot like a smile of  
triumph. This wasn't good. Not that Rei really wanted Shinji in her pants,  
but Asuka just seemed to rub her the wrong way.  
  
Time to change that plan. "Shinji?" she said.  
  
"Yes?" replied the boy.  
  
"I'm sorry I got mad at you. Asuka seems to think you're a pretty nice  
guy and you didn't mean it, so I shouldn't have shouted."  
  
"Well..." said Shinji.  
  
"Well nothing!" yelled Asuka. "She gets herself into a compromising  
situation, then she bitches you out in class for it. She should do something  
to really make up for that, not just say something pitiful like she did." Yup,  
thought Rei. Completely predictible.  
  
"All right. Shinji, I'll try to make up for it. Why don't you come over  
to my house? I'm sure Mom will let you have dinner with me and her. She's  
usually pretty nice about that. Oh, Akuma, you can come too."  
  
"He is not having dinner with you!" yelled Asuka.  
  
"But I'm just making up for my, ahem, _offense_."  
  
"Fine. Then I'm going to escort him."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"That... is a incredible story that I'm very glad we kept our distance  
from" said Aeka when Mayuka seemed to have finally finished her tale.  
  
"It is, isn't it?" she replied. "If only we could have won."  
  
"They can't do that to us!" exclaimed Aeka.  
  
"It already happened, dear" said Noboyuki. "They already did it."  
  
"There has to be something we can do", said Aeka. "But we don't have any  
abilities that would let us...."  
  
"You're a princess, dear!" answered Noboyuki. "You'll think of something."  
  
"Oh, yes, I am! Well, of course a situation like this would be one that  
those of royal Juraian blood can cope with. We only need to, um, er....  
Mayuka-chan, do you have any suggestions?"  
  
"I don't know. Mom and Dad aren't themselves, and Great Grandfather is  
dying. I don't know about anyone else. Maybe Grandmother Washuu could help  
us."  
  
"Of course!" said Noboyuki. "The Third Impact affected the Earth. Her  
lab isn't on the Earth any more than your Dark Dimension is. If she helped  
create part of it, she must have something that can reverse it."  
  
"If she's still a scientist. If she's a similar enough scientist that she  
still knows how to go there and use the equipment. I can't get in there myself  
from the Dark Dimension, she has too many safeguards. If she's even alive...  
what if she's like Great-Grandfather? She could be dying right now! I want  
my home back...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Rei hung up the phone. "It's okay with Mom if everyone comes for dinner",  
she said. "So anyway, what's that about your parents being criminals, Akuma?"  
  
"It's a little embarrassing, but...." Shinji and Asuka, of course, had  
already heard the story, and they started to chat with each other as Rei  
listened. "Mom and Dad were bank robbers", explained Akuma. They used to live  
in the USA, and they were responsible for a string of at least thirty  
incidents. I think Mom sort of dragged Dad into it. They had an awful lot of  
fun, or so they tell me. Sometimes they'd rob a bank and throw money  
all over the place just because they wanted to. They didn't sell drugs or kill  
anyone... it was just stealing. You know how they finally came back to  
Japan?"  
  
"No, how?"  
  
"It was when Mom decided to branch out into other kinds of robbery. They  
ended up stealing some important industrial information. They were going  
to sell it, but...."  
  
"But they got caught?" wondered Rei.  
  
"Almost. It turned out the mayor... this was in Nevada... had been doing  
some pretty illegal things, and there was evidence in one of the files they  
took. Suddenly everything blew up. There was this big manhunt. They got  
caught, but they made a deal that they'd leave the country and hand over the  
stolen files in exchange for not being prosecuted.  
  
"And", continued Akuma, "they came over here, rich. They even bought Dad's  
grandfather a house and gave him a lot of money. We really live well. I can't  
say I'm really proud of that but if you have to be a thief there's probably  
lots of worse kinds."  
  
"You know what?" said Rei. "That's pretty funny."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"It was my Mom's job to _catch_ criminals."  
  
"She's a police officer? Oh wait, 'was'."  
  
"No, it was when she was a kid. Really a kid, a lot younger than us. She  
was in elementary school."  
  
"I think you're pulling our leg", said Asuka. "That's pretty young for a  
cop. How could she possibly have caught criminals in elementary school?"  
  
"I didn't say she was a cop. She was Pretty Sammy!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"This is where I live", explained Rei. "It's a nice neighborhood... oh,  
you can ignore Washuu if she's here yet."  
  
"Washuu?" wondered Akuma. "Who's that?"  
  
"She's a scientist from America, Akuma. She used to live next door to us,  
right after she came over. By rocket. She used to help Mom as a kid at times.  
She's moving into this area too, so we'll still be neighbors... I don't know if  
she's in the house yet. There haven't been any movers there yet, but somehow  
I don't think she's going to use any." There was a group of people parked  
outside Washuu's door, one of them knocking and some of the others peeking  
through the windows. "Hey, she has visitors", noted Rei.  
  
Akuma looked over at the group of people. And some of them looked back.  
He couldn't recognize any of them, but he felt a sudden chill as the  
college-age girl with blue hair and red eyes stared at him. The look in her  
eyes was that of familiarity, far too much of it. And she was staring, no  
mistake.  
  
"Akuma?" said the girl. "Is that you?"  
  
"How did you know my name? Who are you, anyway?"  
  
"I... never mind. I'm sorry I bothered you", she said, and quickly turned  
away.  
  
"Weird", said Shinji.  
  
"Don't I know it", said Rei. "We'd better get inside... for Washuu, weird  
is a way of life."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Rei unlocked the door. "Mom?" she shouted. "Hi, Mom...."  
  
There was the sound of movement in another room and a woman entered from  
a bedroom. She brushed her light blue hair out of her red eyes and  
straightened her clothes; apparently she had been lying down. "Hi Rei. I'm  
sorry, I hadn't been feeling very good today. Are these your friends?"  
  
"Yeah! Mom, this is Shinji, this is Akuma, and this is Asuka. Everyone...  
this is my mother. She used to be a superhero."  
  
She looked over the children. There seemed to be something sad in her  
gaze. "It's nice to meet all of you", she said, as if nothing was wrong. But  
Rei knew better. "I'm Sasami."  
  
"Could you tell us a little bit about it?" asked Shinji.  
  
"Well, it all happened a long time ago. I got a magical baton that lets  
me transform... would you like to look at it? It's in the closet there, in  
the back on the top." Sasami pointed to a hall closet, right next to the  
outside door.  
  
"Let me get it", said Asuka, walking to the closet. "I want to see if I  
can turn into Pretty Sammy."  
  
"You can't", said Sasami. "You need to know the magic words."  
  
"Shinji, do you like girls who turn into superheroes with short skirts?"  
asked Rei, slight mischief showing on her face.  
  
"I'm not going to answer that!" replied the boy. "No matter what I say,  
one of you is going to get mad at me."  
  
Rei approached the closet. "Asuka, hand me the baton", she said. "I  
always wanted to find out if it'd work on me."  
  
"No _way_!" replied Asuka. "You could have tried it any time you wanted.  
I wonder what I'd look like in that old turn-of-the-millennium costume." She  
rummaged in the closet and found a squat pink baton, precariously perched on  
the to shelf above several boxes. Asuka pulled it down and stared at it.  
After examining it for switches and inscriptions she said, marginally more  
timidly than her usual, "Umm, Rei... the magic words?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
The doorbell clanged. "Asuka, you get it", said Sasami.  
  
"Okay, I've... wait! Why do guests have to answer doorbells?"  
  
Sasami glared at Asuka and she stumbled back out of the closet to open the  
door. The vibration made the boxes fall the rest of the way over right on top  
of her, along with a phonebook, some clothes, and an umbrella. She shoved it  
all back inside the closet (at the bottom), slammed the closet door shut, and  
opened the house door.  
  
Three people were standing there, a girl of around 18 wearing normal  
clothes, and a black-haired man and a purple-haired woman in what didn't seem  
to be normal clothing at all. What they wore looked like nothing more than  
very well-designed costumes, partly medieval and partly futuristic.  
  
The woman looked at Sasami. "Sasami?" she asked as she placed her shoes  
aside and entered. "Little sister? It's me, Aeka."  
  
Sasami smiled. She stepped forward to embrace Aeka, and then the other  
two.  
  
"Then you didn't...?" said Aeka.  
  
"It doesn't prove anything", said the older teenaged girl to Aeka. "You  
could be related anyway."  
  
"Mom?" said Rei. "Mom... what's wrong?"  
  
"Aeka, Mayuka, Noboyuki... this is my daughter Rei. Rei, these people are  
some very unexpected relatives and I'm going to have to talk to them in  
private. And don't worry, Mayuka. I know exactly who you are and what's going  
on." She turned to Rei and said "Rei, there's plenty of stew in the fridge.  
Your friends can have as much as they want. Something's come up."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"I think she's going to be a while talking with those people downstairs",  
said Rei. "You can forget about eating with her."  
  
"Does she do that often?" wondered Shinji.  
  
"Just about never. And I've never seen those people before. Two of them  
had strange clothes."  
  
"Maybe they really are relatives", said Asuka.   
  
"Mom was upset today. Sick, but not just sick", said Rei. "I wonder if  
she was upset because one of them called her... no, it couldn't be. She was  
really surprised to see them." Rei got the bowl of stew out, poured some on  
everyone's plates, and microwaved them one at a time.  
  
"One of them looked right at me", said Akuma. "It was creepy."  
  
"Never mind, Akuma", said Rei. "It's none of our business, anyway."  
  
"Shinji's none of your business either, Rei!" exclaimed Asuka.  
  
"Let's not get into that again..." muttered Shinji.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Sasami?" asked Aeka hesitantly. "What's going on here?"  
  
"Aeka", replied Sasami. "You know I'm not just a princess. I'm Tsunami,  
the source of all the power of Jurai."  
  
Aeka nodded.  
  
"And", continued Sasami, "Tsunami isn't _here_. When the Third Impact  
rearranged the world, Tsunami wasn't affected. I had to go through another  
assimilation... but this time it didn't take seven hundred years."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Hmm, wondered Asuka, how could she separate Shinji from Rei? For some  
reason she just didn't like the idea of Rei serving him food. Asuka bent down  
to the floor. "I think I can hear them talking", she said. "Hey Shinji, come  
here."  
  
He did. She'd trained him well, so to speak. So did Rei, following him.  
  
"Not you, Rei" said Asuka. "We don't need more than two people listening."  
  
"Fine" said Rei. "You do know it's a lot easier to hear through the door,  
right? And I'm not interested in Shinji anyway." She grabbed Akuma's hand and  
led him to the door to downstairs.  
  
Well, thought Asuka as she put an arm around Shinji, that worked out pretty  
well. At least, she thought so until she glanced over at about the time Rei  
gasped. "Asuka", said Rei, "they're..."  
  
"They're what?"  
  
"I think you'd better come over here. This could be serious."  
  
"What, you mean really listen?"  
  
"Yes, I mean really listen. This is all as bizarre as _anything_ Washuu  
has ever done."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You know what's going on, don't you?" wondered Mayuka.  
  
"Yes, I do. Mayuka, it was before you were with us. One of your  
grandmother's devices... had a problem. A big problem. It created alternate  
worlds for each of us who was there, based on everyone's imaginations. Your  
parents were gangsters in America. Aeka here was in a Japanese legend. And I  
was the magical girl... Pretty Sammy.  
  
"The Third Impact", continued Sasami as she explained, "was going to  
destroy everyone's bodies and unite their minds. Washuu's last ditch hope was  
to use her old invention to counteract the Third Impact. People's minds  
wouldn't be floating through an ocean of blood, making a shared reality that  
only existed in their imagination. No, that shared reality would not just be  
imagination, it would _be_ the alternate world that everyone imagined it to  
be."  
  
"But what about us?" wondered Mayuka. "Nobody's heard of me, and Akuma  
didn't recognize Aunt Aeka."  
  
"Tell me, Mayuka", said Sasami, "when an alternate world is created for  
somebody, and they're brought back... what happens to the rest of the world?"  
  
"Uh, it vanishes?"  
  
"Right. And the people in it?"  
  
"They're _dead_?"  
  
"Yes, Mayuka. It's not supposed to be permanent. We have to be able to  
change it back somehow. If she had set it up so this new world had any people  
on it who didn't exist at the time it was transformed, we'd never be able to  
change it back. It would be murder."  
  
"We have to change it back", said Noboyuki. "Yosho will die soon if we  
don't. In a few decades so will Tenchi and Ryouko and everyone else that's  
still living here."  
  
"Aunt Sasami", asked Mayuka, "you can do it, can't you?"  
  
"Of course!" interjected Aeka. "We're princesses... right, Sasami?"  
  
"I don't know how to do it", said Sasami. "But in this crazy mixed-up  
world, Washuu lives next door. She should be able to do something."  
  
"Then it's onwards to save the world!" said Aeka.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The door clicked and slammed open, and Rei, accompanied by the three other  
teenagers, stepped downstairs into the den. "No, it's not!" said Rei. She  
whispered something to Asuka and then, getting no response, pulled the baton out  
of her hands. "Mom, we were listening. We heard enough of that. What are you  
_doing_? That wasn't some game or joke... you meant everything you said,  
didn't you?"  
  
"Rei, dear... it's really nothing that should concern you."  
  
"You can't fool us! Just because we're young doesn't mean that we don't  
have any sense. I heard all of that stuff! You're going to destroy the world  
to save it. You think we live in the wrong world, so you're going to take away  
everything everyone has ever known in order to replace it with something worse.  
I can't believe you'd do something like this, Mom! Weren't you once someone  
who fought for good?"  
  
"I... Pretty Sammy was just something I made up, Rei. The world is a lot  
more complicated than that. We have to make hard decisions. I wasn't just  
sick this morning, Rei. I was trying to decide whether I should do anything  
at all... and it wasn't easy."  
  
"What is real, Mom? How much worse is the 'real world' than what I knew  
all my life? Are we poor, or am I sick and in the hospital, or crippled?"  
  
"Rei, please...."  
  
"This is too strange for the mind of a princess", said Asuka haughtily.  
  
"Rei has a point", said Shinji. "I don't understand this superhero stuff,  
but it's just... not right to remake the world just because you want to. To  
decide for billions of people how they should live their lives. You have to  
leave it the way it is!"  
  
"Children, please", said Aeka. "You must have heard just enough to get it  
all wrong. Rei, this is something that has to be done. Even if Sasami is your  
mother now she can't let that get in the way of doing what's necessary. We've  
always known that; it's part of being royalty. It's why we've tried to stay  
away from ruling in the first place."  
  
"What do you mean 'your mother now'?" asked Rei.  
  
Suddenly three pairs of Juraian and part-Juraian eyes were on Aeka.  
"Oops", she muttered.  
  
END CHAPTER 10.  



	11. Time and Space Adventure (II)/epilogue

Angels, Heaven, and Earth  
by Ken Arromdee  
  
Chapter 11  
Time and Space Adventures (II)  
  
"You're going to get rid of our family completely, Mom!" exclaimed Rei.  
"I'm right, right? All to help save these people I never even met."  
  
"Wait", said Sasami. "It's not quite like that...."  
  
"Listen to Sasami!" interjected Aeka. She used her best princess lecture  
tone. "Once it's all over, you won't even remember. Now we have some important  
things to do and...."  
  
"No, you listen!" interrupted Rei. "That's... that's so selfish. I  
never thought you'd want to do this to me, Mom. I thought you loved me. But  
it's all a lie. That's what you're telling me. No, not only was it a lie,  
it never even happened. I never met you before today."  
  
"That's not true", said Sasami as Noboyuki and the other adults watched,  
not sure what to say to this girl. They'd all had experiences with handling  
bratty children, but... Rei was angry over something a lot more serious than  
not being allowed to have thirty dresses in one's wardrobe. "We've met in  
the... real world."  
  
"Remember that doll you bought for me when I was five, the one I still have  
on my dresser, Mom?"  
  
"Yes...."  
  
"You never bought that for me. And remember all the trouble you went  
through to be sure I got into the school I'm going to now? Rushing to make  
sure all the papers were done on time even though we just moved here?"  
  
Sasami nodded.  
  
"Well, you didn't. You didn't do anything." Tears began to run down Rei's  
face. "Are you really my Mom? Or just... just some monster from some magical  
kingdom?"  
  
Sasami stepped towards Rei and hugged her briefly; she stopped talking long  
enough for Sasami to look down at her and smile, face bright with hope. She  
wiped the moisture from Rei's face.  
  
Rei would have none of it. "Mom... what?"  
  
"Well...." replied Sasami.  
  
"You're not going to stop this plan, are you?"  
  
"No, I'm not. We'll talk about this later. Now you'd better leave the  
room. All of you children."  
  
Rei hesitated.  
  
"There's a time to be feisty", said Aeka. "This isn't it." She helped  
Sasami push Rei and the other teens out the door, despite their angry  
protestations.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Mayuka kept her voice low, so as not to be overheard again. "Rei's right,  
you know.", she said. "Gendou and Yui wanted to do the same thing as us.  
Remake the world. It's the second time, but it's still controlling the fate of  
billions of people without asking them."  
  
Aeka shook her head. "Duchess, my parents do it all the time. It's their  
job. I had thought that none of us would have to, but I was wrong. Mayuka,  
we're the only people who _can_ make this decision. That's the difference  
between a king and a dictator. The king makes decisions because he has to.  
The dictator does it because he likes telling people what to do. We're not  
the same as Gendou. Not at all."  
  
Mayuka thought it over.  
  
"It's not an ideal world, Duchess. Sometimes we have to make tough  
decisions. Even ones which hurt people. We don't want to... and we should  
never want to, but sometimes, duty calls. Let's go and get it over with now."  
  
Mayuka nodded slowly. "You're right."  
  
"Wait", said Sasami. "I have to do something."  
  
"Rei?" wondered Mayuka.  
  
"Yes, Rei. She deserves an explanation before... before it's all over.  
Wait for me, please. I have to talk to her in private... To my daughter."  
  
* * * * *  
  
A half hour later Sasami returned. She seemed even more emotionally  
drained than she was before. "It's time", she said. "Let's go."  
  
They all left through the basement door and walked over to Washuu's house.  
Sasami stood at Washuu's door with the other three Impact survivors, and  
knocked.  
  
A bright, cheerful, hologram shimmered into view. It was about three  
inches tall and hovering at eye level. "Hello, Sasami!" came the words from  
the image. "I'm sorry, but I'm not home right now. Please be advised that I  
won't be moving in until tomorrow morning. Thank you and have a nice day."  
  
"Well, even if the world is torn apart and reconstructed, some things never  
change" said Sasami. "Guess we try tomorrow after all."  
  
"Right", said Mayuka. "It... _feels_ like we have to rush. It's all so  
worrying. But there's really nothing that's going to change if we do it  
tomorrow. Aunt Aeka, Uncle Noboyuki... you want to go back to Jurai now,  
right?"  
  
Aeka nodded. "We have to, Duchess. If Mom and Dad and Mom knew that there  
was a way to visit Earth instantly, can you imagine how many visits everyone  
here would have to put up with?"  
  
"If the world ever gets back to normal", said Mayuka. "Anyway, I'll be in  
the Dark Dimension until I come to get you tomorrow. And Aunt Sasami, you'll  
be here, right?"  
  
"Right." replied Sasami.  
  
"I hope so" said a girl's voice, which Mayuka recognized as Rei. They  
looked around and saw her waiting outside Sasami's own house next door, just  
peeking around a row of leafy bushes.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The next morning, the rising sun cast a beautiful red glow down the  
street... a glow that Sasami had never seen before in this particular way,  
though her memories said otherwise. She looked towards her house, and then  
towards Washuu's, pacing until finally a flash of light heralded the appearance  
of Mayuka, Aeka, and Noboyuki.  
  
"You want to get it over with, Sasami, right?" asked Aeka.  
  
"I... yes, I do."  
  
Suddenly Rei slammed open the door and ran out, carrying a bag of books and  
a lunch. She looked at Sasami, said "Goodbye, Mom", and disappeared down the  
street. Everyone watched.  
  
The first to speak up was Aeka. "Everything did work out okay, didn't it?"  
  
Sasami nodded. "It's all right... I think. We'd better get going." She  
quickly proceeded to Washuu's door and rapped at it several times.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Someone said "Door, unlock" from the other side, and followed up "Come on  
in, it's not locked." Sasami opened the door and of course, Washuu was there  
waiting for everyone. She really looked and sounded almost the same as she had  
in what they still thought of as the real world, with spiky red hair and  
wearing a lab coat. "Have a seat", said Washuu, pointing to some  
uncomfortable-looking wooden crates. "And put your shoes on that newspaper  
over there."  
  
"Washuu..." said Sasami.  
  
"Yes? Get on with it." Somehow, Washuu seemed bored. She took a device  
out of her pocket and waved it at everyone, seemingly more interested in it  
than in the discussion.  
  
"Washuu", repeated Sasami, "we've come here to ask you to, well, fix the  
world. Something's made everything be not what it was supposed to be."  
  
"Fix the world?" responded Washuu. "Do I look like a plumber? By the  
way, did you know that all of you have quite a bit of strange energy in you?  
I don't think any of you are completely human."  
  
"There's a reason for that, Washuu. We're not. Because we're all relics  
of that other world."  
  
"Could you be a little more specific?" asked Washuu.  
  
"I'll be a little more specific", interjected Mayuka. "Everything was  
very different. Until, one day, we were unable to completely stop a man from  
imposing his own vision on the planet Earth. He altered it into the way it  
is now, and we need your help to bring it back!"  
  
"Take it easy", suggested Washuu. "You're really much too tense. Surely  
if the Earth was altered, I would have heard of it already, right? But I  
haven't."  
  
"Everyone thinks it's always been the way it is now", said Sasami. "Even  
you."  
  
"A strange concept", mused Washuu. "Sasami, tell me, what is this world  
like? Am I there?"  
  
"Well, in the original reality, you were a human incarnation of an  
immortal goddess, and reknowned throughout the universe for your scientific  
skills."  
  
"I... see" replied Washuu. For a moment, it seemed like she was willing  
to help; but Washuu had a way of not doing what everyone expected, and even in  
a world turned upside-down, she was still Washuu. "Very well, come back in,  
oh, ten years and ask me again. I'm busy."  
  
"You're not going to help us?" asked Mayuka.  
  
"No, I'm not going to help you. Didn't I just finish saying that?"  
  
"But... why?"  
  
"Listen, whoever you are. This isn't the first I've heard of this. Let me  
tell you a story...."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"It all began ten years ago, Sasami. I was working on the unified theory  
of everything. It began with just a little piece of analysis. Why so many  
people died around the turn of the millennium. But the more and more I  
analyzed it, the worse it all appeared to be. I fed the computer train  
schedules, death reports, population statistics, everything I could think of.  
But the outcome... the outcome was that it was all impossible.  
  
"It wasn't", continued Washuu, "something that *couldn't* happen. No, it  
was subtler. The entire world was extremely unlikely. I had my unified  
theory of everything, all right. Have you ever heard of Last-Thursdayism,  
Sasami?"  
  
"Last-Thursdayism?"  
  
"It's a philosophical exercise. How can you prove that the world wasn't  
created last Thursday? Complete with history, so buildings and trees and rocks  
all show signs of age, and everyone remembers a past that never existed? How  
can you prove that the world wasn't created yesterday, or even a second ago?  
  
"That was the theory of everything. I never thought I'd prove it, never  
thought I'd be able to show that there are so many subtle inconsistencies in  
the world that the sanest explanation *is* that it was created last Thursday,  
but that's just what I did. I learned how I could reverse it. And for ten  
years I've kept that theory, and that knowledge, secret. Do you know what the  
final irony of all this is?"  
  
"Yes", replied Mayuka, but Washuu ignored the remark.  
  
"If the world was created yesterday, complete with everyone and all their  
memories, so was the theory. So I haven't kept that theory secret for ten  
years after all. I just remember doing that. This newly created world was  
created *as if* all its history really happened, and since *if* it happened  
I would have noticed it, then the world was created with a false history of  
myself having noticed it a long time ago."  
  
"But then you know how to help us. So do it", demanded Aeka.   
  
"No. Because a person's memories and personality are part of their  
identity. If I were to do what you asked, there would be another world, and  
another Washuu. She would be a famous scientist, known over thousands of  
planets. She would be immortal. But she wouldn't be me, she would be a person  
with a different set of experiences and history that made her what she was.  
Changing the world would be suicide. And mass murder."  
  
The four looked at each other.  
  
"She might be right", said Mayuka. "Do we really have the right to demand  
this?"  
  
"Yes, I think so" replied Sasami.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because people here and people there are similar. They don't have  
completely different experiences, they don't have completely different  
personalities. They are the same people."  
  
"You're not being convincing", said Washuu. "What's so great about this  
so-called real world that you want to go back to it so badly?"  
  
"It's good for our family", answered Aeka. "My brother won't be dying,  
and Tenchi and Ryouko will live as long as us. And there are people we need  
to bring to justice."  
  
"They never committed crimes now, right? Why do you need to bring them to  
justice? It's not like they'll do it again if they're not stopped. If they're  
even the same 'they'."  
  
"Washuu", asked Sasami, "do you know the real reason why the population of  
the world suddenly halved at the turn of the millennium? It's one of those  
extremely unlikely things now. But before, it didn't happen just by chance.  
It happened because the project that these people set up did an experiment.  
They unleashed the First Angel at the South Pole, causing an Impact that  
nearly destroyed the world just from its effects on the climate. And then  
came the wars... nations with troubles often take it out on other nations.  
Three billion people, all dead because of Ikari Gendou and Ikari Yui. And  
they're not coming back, Washuu. Gendou and Yui killed more people than  
Hitler, or Stalin, or Pol Pot. It was the greatest crime in the history of  
the human race."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The doorbell rang. "Who is it?" shouted Washuu.  
  
"Candygram" replied Rei's voice.  
  
"Very funny, Rei. Door, open." It did. "Shouldn't you be at school now?"  
asked Washuu as Rei entered.  
  
"I... usually would be", said Rei. "But I came back. I have something  
to show you. It's really very important."  
  
"Are you sure?" asked Washuu. "I've had enough visitors today."  
  
"Yes, I'm sure", replied Rei. "I discussed it with Mom and I thought about  
it for a long time before I realized that I had no choice. I was only  
delaying the inevitable." Rei pulled a squat, pink, wand from her bookbag.  
It resembled a fat stick with a heart on the end. She whispered something--in  
obvious embarassment--and suddenly pointed the object at Washuu. Washuu  
reached for it with her scanner, but beams of radiance from the wand shone  
onto her, somehow freezing her in place. She feebly clawed at the air,  
dropping the scanner, which clattered to the floor. Fear and anger suddenly  
shone through Washuu's eyes.  
  
"Now", said Rei while the others stood around not knowing what to do, "you  
love everyone. You love the world." Rei stammered as she spoke, the words  
perhaps not meant to be about only Washuu. "Y-- You'll do whatever brings it  
back at a-- any cost to yourself, because you love the world so much. It's  
the only right thing to do."  
  
The other emotions in Washuu's eyes faded away, to be replaced by a  
starry-eyed look of adoration. Mesmerized, she reached into the air with  
both hands, pulling from nowhere an odd machine, about a meter wide and  
studded with pipes and valves. "I've been so selfish..." she said as she  
turned a dial on the machine. "Goodbye."  
  
"Mayuka, now", said Sasami. Mayuka nodded, and brought out the transport  
orb. She mentally forced it to do its work, and light began to flare around  
the group.  
  
"Goodbye", said Rei. "Goodbye Mom. Goodbye everyone. I wish I could  
see your world, but I won't ever know...."  
  
"Wait!" yelled Sasami. Suddenly she stepped forward and grabbed Rei's  
hand, pulling her in with the rest. All four and Rei vanished as what Ikari  
Gendou had tried to do, and what Washuu had diverted, finally unravelled all  
across the globe.  
  
They reappeared in what, eighteen years ago, had been Yuzuha's control  
room. The displays Mayuka had been using were still tuned to Earth, and all  
the scenes were twisting and warping. "She did it", said Sasami. "We're  
back...."  
  
Rei clutched her head and fell onto the floor, gasping.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You brought her along?" wondered Aeka. "And she's ill now."  
  
"She's not ill", replied Sasami. "She's assimilating."  
  
"Assimilating?"  
  
"With Lilith. Like me... me as a Juraian and me as a tree. Combined  
together. There was no Lilith in that alternate world, but now Lilith suddenly  
exists again, out there buried in that black cavern beneath Tokyo-3. And Rei  
exists here, and both are parts of the same being. I'm sorry Rei... you  
don't have years to do this in. Are you okay?"  
  
"I..." Rei tried to get up. Her legs collapsed under her, dropping her  
unceremoniously to the floor until she grabbed at the air and managed to raise  
herself to a standing position again. "Gendou, I remember you... everyone...  
the Evas... Mom?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You've lost", said Yui. "All that power, and you lost. SEELE lost.  
Prepare for the next step in human evolution." Waves of darkness and light  
surrounded them and expanded. Sasami shot a blast of unimaginable power at  
them... but it evaporated in midair as the waves passed it. They overtook  
Sasami, Akuma, Ryouko and Tenchi, the mass production Evas... then suddenly  
vanished.  
  
Washuu reached for her last-resort device. With it she might be able to  
interfere with the upcoming Impact... at the cost of the self-identity of  
every person on the planet. But she hesitated. The momentary feeling that her  
insides were melting and twisting had abruptly stopped. She glanced around.  
Stretch of barren sand, check. Monster clones in the sky, check. It wasn't  
the end of the world after all; somehow, the Third Impact had failed.  
  
And there was only one way that could have happened. Washuu felt quite  
proud of herself.  
  
In front of her materialized Sasami, Aeka, Noboyuki, Mayuka, and Rei. No  
doubt fresh from a stay in the Dark Dimension. "You did it", said Sasami.  
"It's back."  
  
Washuu's keen mind had no problem deducing what Sasami had meant. "Yes,  
I suppose I must have done it after all. Was it hard convincing me?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Shinji turned around and sat down in the sand. He had had to run from that  
battle for long enough. Would it be all right? He had once considered killing  
himself, and failed only because he didn't have the courage... now, if Kaworu  
wasn't stopped, Kaworu would do the job for not just him, but the whole world.  
Could Akuma win this fight?  
  
In front of Shinji materialized Akuma, hovering in the air with his  
ponytail blowing behind him. He looked down at Shinji, and then raised one  
thumb in triumph. He smiled.  
  
"Come on", he said, "there's not much time, I need to get Asuka and Misato  
and Kaji too. Besides, you'll kill yourself if you don't come and see the end  
of the whole Project...."  
  
Shinji reached out and let himself be taken along, but grimaced at Akuma's  
remark.  
  
"Hm? Was it something I said?"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Even when facing SEELE and knowing that the smallest political misstep  
could send them to an early grave, Gendou and Yui always kept their goal in  
mind. So many days of the present were full of conflict and despair, but they  
knew, through their hope for the future, that each day was only an obstacle  
that had to be overcome before they would achieve their ultimate triumph.  
  
And now, as they raced towards their goal, someone came by with a  
steamroller. It was all gone now; conflict and despair were all that they  
had left. Perhaps all that they ever had really accomplished.  
  
It seemed like the crowd standing around them included every living person  
that they'd ever done the slightest wrong to. The boy with the ponytail had  
brought in the three Children, and had just announced he was going to find  
Kaji and Misato. And the rest of the aliens were there, too; as Ryouko and  
Tenchi filled the skies with vapor clouds that were once mass-production  
Evangelion units, Gendou and Yui felt completely impotent, tossed around by  
forces outside their control. In fact, had they only thought about people  
other than themselves a little more, they might have realized that at the  
moment they were only tasting what Shinji had had to swallow for most of his  
lifetime, all because of them.  
  
"It's only a matter of time", said Rei. "A few minutes of time, tops, and  
then the time waiting for your trial. You finally went too far."  
  
Shinji struggled to bring the words out to his tongue. He realized that  
this was a moment he would remember forever, and tried to say something. But  
the best he could do was to stammer out "Your... evil plans... are finished".  
He thought he sounded like a character from an old manga.  
  
Gendou rolled his eyes. "Evil plans... no. You always did see things in  
overly simple terms, Shinji. The entire human race could have been united as  
one. The project could have succeeded. But you people don't know what you've  
just destroyed. If you fully understood it, this could never have happened."  
  
"You know", said Washuu, "I do have something of a reputation, but there's  
me, and there's Kagato, and whatever you think, you're rather closer to the  
Kagato side."  
  
"You and Yui", said Rei, "are the ones who did wrong here. You lost  
track of humanity. You hurt me, you hurt your son, and you hurt everyone in  
the world. All so you could achieve your dream... *your* dream. Nobody  
else's. The greatest evils in history were done by men who had the wrong kind  
of dreams and didn't care what happened to the people who didn't understand  
them as long as the world was remade in their image."  
  
"How dare you?" said Gendou. "Do you understand that your own role in the  
Project... your very existence, were all our doing?"  
  
Rei turned to Sasami and said "Go ahead, Mom. Tell him." At the word  
"Mom", Asuka opened her mouth.  
  
"I want to hear this, Asuka", said Shinji. Miraculously, Asuka did stop.  
Or maybe she was just speechless anyway.  
  
Sasami nodded to Rei. "Mr. and Mrs. Ikari, do you remember what the  
Secret Deat Sea Scrolls say about the three Goddesses? The three aspects,  
which Ritsuko's mother programmed into the Magi: Scientist, mother, and  
woman. But do you recall their names?"  
  
"That's top-secret...." replied Gendou.  
  
"Their names", she continued, "were Washuu, Tsunami, and Tokimi. And  
Tsunami is me. I remember now; it took me a long time to recall, but after  
all it was billions of years ago that the first Impact tore the Moon from the  
Earth. On that day I created Lilith, the source of all life on the Earth.  
Rei is Lilith, and Lilith's mother is me. You're the ones who don't  
understand."  
  
"Congratulations, Wonder Girl", muttered Asuka.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Kaji held out two pairs of handcuffs. Gruffly, he commanded that Gendou  
and Yui stick their hands out, expecting resistance and being fully prepared to  
shoot them. But they didn't resist; of fifteen years of dedication and  
single-mindedness, all they were left with was a sense of inescapable failure.  
It was too late for them; they could no longer avoid whatever their fate might  
be.  
  
"Wait", said Washuu. "You have something we might want to use. Ryouko,  
I need some help here."  
  
"What is it?" replied Ryouko. "Tenchi and I were just about ready to go  
off and have some time to ourselves...."  
  
"It'll only be a minute." She pointed to Gendou's hand.  
  
"Oh, that? No problem." Ryouko touched the creature buried in the skin  
and dematerialized, phasing it right out of Gendou's palm. She became solid  
again, and tossed it to Washuu, who caught it and put it in her pocket.  
  
"Good. I've already downloaded SEELE. They had converted themselves into  
computer programs in the end, and it's a good thing I have all that storage  
space. By the way, do any of you like playing Quake VII?"  
  
Kaji looked at Washuu skeptically. Strange people. But then, they didn't  
seem malicious, and there was precious little he could do if they were. And  
they had saved the world. He looked Gendou in the eyes. "By the authority I  
have under the Internal Investigation Department", announced Kaji, "I place  
you, Ikari Gendou and Ikari Yui, under arrest for conspiracy, misappropriation  
of funds, assault and battery, felony homicide three billion times over...."  
He clasped the cuffs around his hands, and theirs.  
  
Shinji faced his parents. "Why?" he asked. Neither answered.  
  
"Why?" repeated Shinji. "Tell me why!" But he knew there was no answer  
that could possibly satisfy himself.  
  
  
Epilogue  
Fly Me to the Moon  
  
"Are you sure you want to do this, Kaworu?" asked Shinji. "Washuu brought  
you back. You don't need to be destroyed again."  
  
"I've learned enough, understood enough, from that one day I met you."  
  
"It's suicide, Kaworu. I've come too close to it too many times to be  
able to hide what it is."  
  
"You and me are different, Shinji. I am but a portion of Adam, a portion  
that can't survive alone. I must unite with Adam. Perhaps we will meet in  
some distant time and place."  
  
"How?"  
  
"You Lilim have inherited the future, Shinji. Who knows what will happen?"  
  
"I suppose", replied Shinji.  
  
"We're ready to fly", yelled Akuma from overhead as a gigantic shadow  
covered the ground. "Get ready...."  
  
Shinji looked up. Akuma was hovering in the middle of the air, his body  
dwarfed by the huge, spiky, spaceship just above him. A beam of energy  
enveloped him, and Asuka, and all the Masakis, now including Rei. He felt  
almost jealous that Rei had some sort of family now. It was sad to have such  
worthless parents as his. But not as sad as not being able to see that and  
blaming himself instead.  
  
* * * * *  
  
In the distant past, Shinji knew, men once walked on the moon. They came  
in peace for all mankind, and they eventually left, never to return again. As  
he watched the image of the lunar surface on Ryo-ohki's viewscreen grow, he  
felt like he was cheating somehow. That he was doing something he didn't  
deserve to do, something only ever done in the history books, something he  
only did because there were people from space who could break all the rules.  
There was a slight stop, and then Ryouko announced "We're there, kids."  
  
"Goodbye, Kaworu", said Rei.  
  
"Goodbye", added Shinji.  
  
"Goodbye, Shinji. Goodbye, Rei. Goodbye, everyone", said Kaworu.  
Ryouko gave the transport commands; Kaworu vanished from the bridge in a beam  
of light. Just before he was completely gone, Washuu reached into her pocket  
and withdrew a small object. Adam, the first Angel, reduced to a dormant life  
form at a terrible cost. She tossed it into the beam, and it dematerialized  
right after Kaworu did.  
  
"He actually spoke to me", noted Rei.  
  
On the stark landscape on the viewscreen appeared a tiny speck. And then  
suddenly, it was surrounded by a field of energy, pulsating with geometric  
shapes.  
  
"It's done", said Ryouko. "Let's go back."  
  
A "Miya" sound reverberated through the bridge, and the view on the screen  
shrunk away as the ship silently headed back for the Earth.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Akuma waved around as they all rematerialized on the Earth, indicating the  
lush green fields and forests of the Masaki estate. "Want to set off some  
fireworks, Shinji?" he asked.  
  
"Hm?" replied Shinji. "Fireworks?"  
  
"It's Startica. It's a festival on Jurai."  
  
"Oh, that's right. I remember you telling us. So it was real after all.  
Yes... I'd like to, Akuma. I'd like to stay here for a while; I can't  
exactly go back now."  
  
"Sure you can", said Misato. "The school's funding is officially separate  
from the project, and it'll probably take a year just to wind everything down  
anyway."  
  
"I didn't know you were here" said Shinji, looking at the woman.  
  
"Ryouko offered free drinks. How could I not come?"  
  
"Anyway", said Akuma. "Sure you can stay. Come on, lie down on the  
grass and watch the moon. It's going to be the biggest firework of all time."  
  
"If I'm not being too much trouble..."  
  
"Shinji, do you know how many times I've *wanted* to have someone visit  
here without my having to ruin everything by keeping secrets? Stay as long as  
you want. Please."  
  
A glowing red blotch suddenly appeared on the moon's surface. It got  
bigger, and bigger while everyone watched.  
  
"The Third Impact", said Rei. "If you don't want to call it the fourth."  
  
"Since when do you volunteer comments, Wonder Girl?" said Asuka.  
  
"Since when do you ruin important moments like this?" countered Rei.  
  
The redness expanded to cover the whole visible surface of the moon,  
completely silently. It continued to grow, becoming four times the size of  
the moon itself as everyone watched.  
  
"How long is that going to be there?" asked Rei.  
  
"Oh", replied Washuu, "a few hours. Billions of people are going to see  
it. I doubt too many will know what it is, though."  
  
"Well, we know" said Misato, slapping Shinji on the back.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"What do you think is going to happen next?" asked Asuka.  
  
"We're going to go back with Misato. At least for a little while. Rei's  
staying here... and as for my parents... I suppose we'll find out at the  
trial. Maybe I haven't learned my lesson after all this, but I hope that they  
don't get executed."  
  
"Don't be an idiot, Idiot Shinji. If you kill a few people, you might get  
executed. If you kill a million or billion, you get to retire in South  
America."  
  
Shinji glanced down at the ground.  
  
"You're still depressed."  
  
"I still have reason to be. My parents are mass murderers and we're  
talking about executing them. And my life is probably going to be as bad as  
before."  
  
"It'll get better, Idiot Shinji. You don't have to pilot Eva. No Angels,  
no destruction. No conspiracies. And no more mysteries."  
  
"You shouldn't feel guilty", said Rei. "You didn't do anything. None of  
us did."  
  
"See?" said Asuka. "Even Little Miss Instant Personality agrees with  
me. Look, there's a whole world out there. We're kids, we can get over  
this. I'd imagine these space people had problems when they were kids too."  
  
Shinji nodded in reluctant agreement. "We just need to figure out what to  
do next. Does anyone have any ideas?"  
  
"Maybe not", replied Asuka, "but we owe it to ourselves to try."  
  
END.  



End file.
